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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23097634">Hope and Dreams</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pearly_Ashes/pseuds/Pearly_Ashes'>Pearly_Ashes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Undertale (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Also weird magic mechanics, Alternate Universe - Dreamtale (Undertale), Amalgamation of headcanons, Character Death, Gen, M/M, Mild torture, Original au, Other, The Void, Threats of Violence, Threats of torture, nightmare’s castle, weird soul mechanics</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 13:01:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>34,462</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23097634</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pearly_Ashes/pseuds/Pearly_Ashes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Hope wakes up in the void, she has no idea where she came from, and it doesn’t really seem to matter. Right up until the day it matters a whole lot.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>34</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Reflections</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I’m still figuring out AO3, so please be merciful about my inability to tag. It will be fixed.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hope was alone, floating in a dark expanse where neither time nor space had the slightest meaning. She had lived in the void a significant portion of her life, had been born from it, yet the liquid blackness still made her shiver. She stood, or at least moved to a position reminiscent of standing, and pulled off the staff that was tied to her back. The magenta orb at the top instantly flared to life, illuminating a perfect sphere of the blackness around her. She drew it downward, and a small rip opened in the blackness. She peered through the tear in reality into a much brighter place, the light seeping into the void. Having confirmed that the guardian of this place must be otherwise detained, she stepped through, the tear resealing itself as her staff’s glow faded.</p><p><br/>She looked around, enjoying, as always, the feeling of life this place gave off. It was a bit like the void, but a warm amber color instead of black, and sheets of paper were everywhere, hanging suspended in the air, that could instantly transform into a gateway to a world, each unique and strange. Gravity was as unreliable here as in the void, so Hope simply floated up toward a cluster of paper, peering at the titles and the moving pictures on them. She hovered to read one that caught her eye, her cloak fluttering behind her and shifting to the warm tones of a sunrise as the peace of this place settled into her. She smiled, watching the human of this particular world as they attempted to bypass Papyrus and his “gauntlet of deadly terror”. Still smiling softly, she moved on to look at another, and another, working her way into the vast maze that was the doodle sphere, until she tired of them, for the moment, and prepared another rift back to the void. The feeling of a malevolent presence entering one of the universes nearby interrupted her. She turned, a frown touching her face and her cloak shifting several shades darker, now closer to a sky at dusk, as she observed a spiderwebbing of blue strings crisscross over it, then ink eating away at the same strings like acid. The cycle continued as the two outcodes inside battled for control over the fate of the AU. Hope sighed, closed the rift she had opened, and stepped into the paper in front of her instead.</p><p><br/>When she stepped out, she was in the Snowdin of an unfamiliar AU, not surprisingly, considering how many there were. This particular AU seemed to have been on a neutral route before the infamous glitch intervened, with neither the blindly cheerful atmosphere of a pacifist route nor the dark emptiness of a genocide. Hope had been aiming to get close to the fighting outcodes, but not too close, and found herself about a hundred yards away, luckily well concealed in the trees at the edge of the forest. The two had already made quite a mess of Snowdin, between Error’s strings and Ink’s haphazard attacks of every sort, most of the town was essentially leveled, and what was standing was definitely going to need some repairs in the near future. As usual, their fighting perplexed Hope. What was the point? Couldn’t Error just find some other universe to destroy instead? Wouldn’t Ink’s time be better served fixing the problems in another universe? And yet they did this, over and over, as though it was fun. Hope had been briefly convinced they did find it fun, until a particularly nasty fight left them both with wounds so awful there was not even a slight chance at “fun” in any capacity, unless both took a sadistic delight in torturing each other, which seemed...unlike them. Especially since Ink’s soullessness meant he wouldn’t even be able to feel that twisted joy anyway.</p><p><br/>While Hope pondered this, the two concluded their fight, with Ink momentarily gaining the upper hand and taking the opportunity to drag Error back out into the anti-void. They never killed each other that she had seen, whether by choice or simply an inability to do so was uncertain however. Their fights generally concluded in this manner, with one managing to knock the other unconscious, shove them out of the universe, and proceed with their job as usual. Hope had watched them fight many times, and followed both to observe the aftermath many times as well. She didn’t like being around Error too often though. The glitchy skeleton just made her feel uncomfortable on a number of levels.<br/>For one thing, he sometimes hung around Nightmare and his crew, a group of people Hope hardly ever enjoyed-scratch that, she never enjoyed being around them. Thanks to her scar, the amount of hate and misery that followed them like a cloud was painful to be around. She hated it. The whole purpose of her life, or at least the one she had given herself to keep from going mad, was to observe and remember all she could, and thanks to this cursed, ugly crack, she couldn’t access a huge portion of the multiverse without feeling like her magic was tearing her apart from the inside. It was her fault though.</p><p><br/>Back before she knew not to get too attached or involved in universes, before she had become most of what she was now, she had come across one called Dreamtale. She had immediately loved it, the beautiful balance and harmony that governed it. So she stayed, not interacting or letting herself be seen of course, but staying nonetheless. Watching the two brothers,Dream and Nightmare, and the magical tree that they had both come from. Before she knew it, she had established a soul link to the world, and at first, that seemed like a good thing. She could properly belong somewhere! She could have friends and not live in the void anymore! She had been so excited, so naive about it. She loved the fact that her eyes had changed to reflect the connection, the right turning a bright golden yellow, the left a deep indigo, when before they had both been white, the usual color for skeletons. But before she could even muster the courage to properly introduce herself to any of the inhabitants, the event that would make Dreamtale notorious struck. Nightmare, miserable from the constant hatred he garnered as the guardian of the dark apples, suddenly snapped. He ate one of the apples himself, then all of them, and transforming into a monster, he began to destroy the beautiful universe. Hope hadn’t even been there when it happened, but she felt it all right. Her left eyed had burned, overflowing with dark magic as the balance of Dreamtale shifted rapidly and unnaturally toward darkness. She could barely think through the pain, but managed nonetheless to get back to Dreamtale, just in time to see Nightmare trap Dream in stone and flee out into the multiverse, taking his cloud of hate and misery with him.</p><p><br/>Hope ran toward the tree, not worried about anyone seeing her. There was no one left to anyway. Being close to Dream and his positive aura made the pain fade considerably, but the damage to her eye was already done. The sudden burst of magic had sent an ugly crack zigzagging down her left cheekbone. She felt it when she raised a shaky hand to wipe away her tears of pain and misery. She didn’t bother trying to free Dream, as Nightmares departure indicated his confidence that his prison would hold. Instead she just sat down in front of him and waited, terrified to go too far away and hurt herself more. Hope had no idea how long she stayed there. She didn’t usually feel hunger anyway, and this world was so damaged she had no way to measure time. It could have been anywhere from a day to years. At some point though, she started to talk to Dream. She had no idea if he could hear her, but she needed to do something. When she opened her mouth, she realized she had never actually spoken before that she could recall. She didn’t even know if she could, or what her voice sounded like. She may as well try though.</p><p><br/>“Hello Dream…” Her voice turned out to be a bit lower than she had expected, partially because it was hoarse from never having been used before. She coughed and tried again. “Can you...hear me at all? I’m sorry this happened… I don’t know what to do now. But I know you need to get free, and I know I can’t stay here forever… but I’m afraid to try to leave. It hurt, when Nightmare did this to this world, and I don’t know what to do. Why did it go so wrong so fast? Why didn’t anyone notice and help him? Why didn’t I notice? Why didn’t you? You’re his brother!” Now that she had found her voice, everything was just spilling out. “I finally get the courage to try to make friends and live a normal life, and of course it all immediately goes downhill!” Her right eye dimmed and the indigo one brightened, responding to the negativity bubbling up inside of her. Her voice distorted slightly as she continued to rant “Am I not allowed to be happy or something? And now I have this crack, and god knows what it’s going to do to me and my magic!” She suddenly felt Dream’s aura of happiness dim, and all her anger was instantly replaced with a mixture of concern and fear. Her eyes returned to their normal appearance in an instant, and her voice softened and regained its usual steadiness. “Dream? Dream, are you alright? What happened? Don’t die!” Hope hadn’t thought she was the type to panic, but events recently had left her fragile at best. Obviously she didn’t really expect him to reply, but shouting still seemed like a good plan in her current mental state. She made a panicked noise, pacing in front of him, as his aura slowly returned to normal. She forced herself to breathe deeply and slowly until she calmed down, then resolved to figure out what had happened. She ran through everything she knew about Dream in her head, landing on one relevant piece of information: negativity weakened him. Realizing it was her fault only made her feel worse, and she suddenly realized she couldn’t stay here. Not only was Hope’s spiral of misery hurting Dream, it was also only a matter of time until Nightmare came back, either to confirm his prison was holding or to finish the job. Hope sighed. No point putting it off. She turned back to the statue.</p><p><br/>“I’m leaving” she said, more to herself than him “But I’ll be back, when I learn to control myself so I don’t hurt anyone.” She turned around and cautiously began to walk away, feeling his aura fading with every step she took. She kept expecting to collapse in pain at any second, her darker eye bursting with magic. But nothing happened, so she just kept going. She had been walking for a long time when she realized she was stuck here, in Dreamtale. How had that not occurred to her before? Come to think of it, how had she even gotten here anyway? One of the few things she did know about herself was that she came from the void, which meant she must have some way to get back there as well. She closed her eyes, concentrating hard...and nothing happened. She gave an exasperated huff. “Come on, Hope! Sure, your hope of company and happiness has been shattered, but lighten up! I’m sure there’s more to live for! I just need to get out of here first, that’s all…” She kept up a steady stream of self-encouragement as she closed her eyes and tried again, focusing on what she wanted: to get out. She felt something fall into her hands. Her eye sockets jumped open, pleasantly surprised that she had actually succeeded. The object she had felt was a long staff, made of the darkest wood she had ever seen, nearly black. It had cloth strips wrapped around it where it was meant to be held for comfort. The base narrowed significantly into a near point, but it was not metal tipped, most likely meaning the wood was hardy enough not to need it. The staff was almost as tall as her when she stood it up. It was humming slightly, and when she focused, she realized it was pulling slightly at her magic. She was a bit wary, but considering her position at the moment, it was worth the risk. She opened her flow of magic to it, both eyes glowing, and watched as a magenta orb, which seemed made of a combination of the two sides of her magic, slowly grew at the top of the staff. After about five minutes, the amount of magic it was taking reduced considerably, and the orb maintained its current size instead of continuing to grow. Experimentally, she moved the staff a bit, and the orb moved with it, albeit slightly slower, so it trailed behind slightly. She swung the staff down, and as it went, the orb seemed to stretch, and a rippling black tear opened in the air in front of Hope. She grinned, not having expected it to be that easy. She only hesitated a moment, looking back toward Dream’s statue, before walking through, the rift sealing behind her moments later, leaving Dreamtale as empty as it had ever been.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Ink</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Hope gets out of the house (well, the void at least)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After her experience in Dreamtale, Hope had stayed in the void for a long time before she discovered the Doodle Sphere. She had only ever travelled through the void before, where entrances to new places were few and far between, so this beautiful place absolutely bursting with new universes to explore was an amazing discovery. She wished she could stay. The only problem was, somebody already lived there. Ink, the supposed guardian of the AUs spent most of his free time there, meaning time he wasn’t stopping maniacs like Error from destroying everything. Hope had been lucky, coming across the Doodle Sphere for the first time when Ink happened to be away. Not that she believed him to have any malevolent intent, but his instability made her naturally wary of what he might do. He was just too unpredictable, and she wasn’t sure how he would take her wandering through what was essentially his home without his permission. He had never seen her though, in all her visits. The first time, he had shown up just as she was returning to the void, and her curiosity got the better of her caution. She left the rip slightly open and just watched him for a while. Even though she didn’t have many others to compare him too, he seemed quite short, and would barely have reached her shoulder level if she had cared to measure. His clothes consisted of brown and teal shorts, and at least three layers of shirts in similar colors, adding some creamy white here and there, topping it all off with a sash loaded with colorful vials and a tan scarf that appeared to have messy scribbled writing covering practically every inch of it. The most striking part of his appearance, though, had to be the gigantic paintbrush slung across his back. It looked almost as tall as Hopes staff, meaning it would probably be taller than the artist if he was standing up next to it. It must have been heavy, but he must have been a lot stronger than he looked, carrying it around with no problem as he attended to various little things that needed done. It was immediately obvious to Hope that this individual was extremely scatterbrained, as he didn’t seem to spend more than a minute doing something, for example straightening up some of the more mundane items hovering in midair, before his attention would be caught by one of the universes floating around. This went on for hours, and the Doodle Sphere looked no cleaner than it had when Ink had first shown up. In fact, the only thing he actually seemed to accomplish was filling a set of paint vials that were on the sash across his chest. Intriguing as this was, Hope was getting tired of watching his scatterbrained habits, so she closed the last of the rift and readjusted to the darkness of the void. She came back though, her fascination captured equally by the Doodle sphere and its peculiar guardian. His talking to himself eventually allowed her to learn his name: Ink. At first she stayed in the Doodle sphere when he was gone, but she eventually grew curious enough to follow him into one of the universes. This one, she would learn later, was called underfell, and it was...not the happiest place she had been to. Ink came out into a town in a way much different than what Hope had expected. Rather than walking out of a portal, it appeared he had reformed out of a puddle of melted snow. Hope would have spent more time pondering this if she hadn’t been immediately distracted by her surroundings. She hadn’t been in a proper town like this for a long time, since Dreamtale, really. She immediately ducked behind a handy copse of trees, hoping Ink was staying here so she could see more of the town. Ink wasn’t here to relax though. He immediately headed in the direction of a darker section of the underground. When Hope paused to examine a sign, well behind Ink, it said “Waterfall”. Distant screams grew louder as they continued, and Ink began to run, clearly in a rush to see what the problem was. Hope continued at her slower pace. It wasn’t like she was going to do anything even if she got there sooner, so what was the point of rushing? When she arrived, she was treated to the sight of a rather vicious battle between Ink and another skeleton. What was with all the skeletons in the multiverse? This one was unique though. He had ebony black bones, with some red and yellow on his hands, or perhaps it was gloves. He was wearing a much less complicated outfit than ink, just some black shorts and a matching black jacket with some yellow accents. What was really off-putting though, was his eyes. The right eye was smaller than the other, and bright red with a yellow iris, while the left had at least three layers of red, blue, and yellow. Underneath both eyes was what looked like bright blue tear tracks, leading all the way to his wide, yellow grin. Random parts of his body flickered, glitching around in no particular pattern. He looked absolutely insane, but it got worse. When he spoke or, in this case laughed maniacally, it sounded like his voice was mangled before coming out. He was currently multitasking, fending off Ink while simultaneously grabbing the souls of random waterfall residents and crushing them to dust with long blue stings, the exact color of those odd tear track markings.<br/>Ink started shouting at him “Stop it Error! You know you can’t get Underfell! The creators will have it back in five minutes!”</p><p><br/>The black skeleton, whose name was apparently Error, just shouted back “That doesn’t keep me from trying!” He sent a barrage of glitchy black bones at Ink. Hopes eyes widened, sure she was about to watch him turn into a pincushion. But at the last moment Ink swing his brush in front of him, and the bones met only a wall of solid ink.</p><p><br/>“Really Error?” Ink called from behind it, “Are you still trying that? We’ve done all of this before. You know as well as I do that this is pointless. So give up!”</p><p><br/>“True….” Error said, pausing in his assault briefly “...NOT!” Taken by surprise, Ink was hit right in the back by a laser shot from the mouth of the floating skull that had been materializing behind him without his notice. Hope, still hiding, gave a quiet shriek, but thanks to the noise she was completely unnoticed by the two combatants. Error strolled over and, still employing the bright blue strings, threw Ink over one of the many cliffs nearby. He then turned, suddenly seeming either annoyed or slightly fearful. His body language was nearly impossible to read. He seemed to be assessing the damage he had caused. The dust from monsters he had killed was everywhere, the few buildings around were nothing but wreckage, and most of the big blue flowers nearby had been uprooted, but even as they watched, the world seemed to shift. Hope blinked, and Waterfall was suddenly back to normal, the monsters were alive, all damage to the area was completely gone. How was that possible?! It didn’t seem to shock Error at all though. He just seemed annoyed.<br/>“Damn reset...knew I should have gone after the flower and the brat first. Next time, I’m tired.” And the destroyer of worlds calmly strolled across a bridge before tearing open a portal to a pure white void and heading through. Hope hesitated, torn between following this fascinating glitch or attempting to help the skeleton that had been so unceremoniously tossed into a deep pit. She opted for the second choice, and peered over the edge. Ink was indeed laying at the bottom, quite far below. Hope was just beginning her attempt to climb down the cliff when he suddenly stood up, lurching a little. She paused, clinging to the rock, when she heard a splash, turning to see only a black puddle on the floor of the canyon below. She jumped in surprise, lost her grip, and fell.</p><p><br/>She knew long before she hit the bottom that this was going to be unpleasant. She did have the good sense to take her staff of her back though. The impact would be bad enough without that, she assumed, and she was right. It hurt. It felt like every bone in her body was shattered by the impact alone, even without the sharp rocks all around. And yet, when she tried to get up, the damage wasn’t anywhere near as bad as she thought it was. She supposed she had little to no experience with this sort of thing and therefore had no idea how much this usually hurt, but she rather assumed she was supposed to be dead after a fall like that. Instead, she was fine; bruised, and perhaps a few cracks in her ribs, but otherwise fine. In fact, she didn’t even really feel it after a few minutes, so she stood up, and walked over to examine the ink puddle. Hey, if she wasn’t hurt, might as well get back to what she was doing, right? She prodded at the puddle with her staff, which had fallen beside her and seemed undamaged. Nothing. It appeared to just be a puddle, no sign of Ink anywhere. Perplexed, but rather stumped, Hope headed back to the Doodle Sphere.</p><p><br/>She was immediately met with the sight of Ink, in absolutely the worst shape she had ever seen him in. Both his legs appeared to be broken, his skull was cracked, and he was leaking a black liquid everywhere. He was so covered in it he almost looked like Error. Hope blinked, confused. What was that black stuff? Skeletons don’t have anything in their bones, right? None of this seemed to bother him much though. He was humming happily, and sorting through the paintbrushes on his sash, settling on a medium sized one. He then proceeded to literally paint himself back together, even creating new bone when a chunk was missing or chipped. When he was done, he looked good as new, although still rather stained from the black liquid. He turned around, tucking the brush back into his sash, and looked at Hope with a grin.</p><p><br/>“Hi!” he chirped, looking totally unsurprised to see her standing there “Who are you? I’m Ink!” It was than that Hope realized that in her fascination, she had neglected to make any attempt to hide her existence. She jumped, ripped open a portal to the void, and jumped through, ignoring Ink yelling “Hey, wait! Where are you going?” behind her. She turned around to close the rift, only to find Ink standing right in front of it, eyelights in the shape of an exclamation point and a question mark. “Whoa!” he said, grin getting, if possible, wider “I’ve never seen anyone travel the multiverse like that before! Actually this doesn’t even look like the multiverse. Where did you get that staff? How does it work? Did you make it? Can Broomy be friends with it? What’s its name? Does-“</p><p><br/>“STOP!” Hope shrieked, completely overwhelmed “P-please stop..”</p><p><br/>He looked perplexed for a moment, then smacked his forehead. “I know what the problem is! Silly me, I forgot again.” He reached for his sash, selected a light blue vial and uncapped it, taking a sip. His expression immediately became less manically happy, and he sighed. “Sorry” he said “I sometimes forget to do this, even though it’s written on my scarf right in front of my face. Let’s try this again. Hi, I’m Ink. He extended a hand, but politely kept it in the Doodle Sphere, not reaching through her portal. She didn’t take it.</p><p><br/>“What was that?” she asked instead, peering at the sash of paints across his chest.<br/>“Oh, right!” he said “I should probably explain. I don’t have a soul, so I have to drink these to keep feeling emotions and be motivated and stuff. Otherwise I’ll die!” He looked remarkably chipper for someone with the potential to die anytime, Hope thought. “Anyway,” he continued, “I wish I could be sorry for scaring you. You are scared, right? Or startled at least?”</p><p><br/>Hope gave a small nod, feeling a little less terrified of this peculiar skeleton. She knew from observing him he was odd, but this conversation had put him on a whole new level of peculiar, even with her limited experience within the multiverse. She swallowed, or as close to it as she could, since skeletons don’t really have throats, and said shakily “...I’m Hope”<br/>“Hope, huh? Fun name! Let me just write it down on my scarf so I don’t forget it…” Ink pulled out a paintbrush, eyelights scanning his scribble covered scarf for an unmarked spot.</p><p><br/>“Don’t!” Hope suddenly interjected. “I’d...rather you didn’t remember me, if that’s at all possible.”</p><p><br/>Ink had jumped at her shout and his grin had faded slightly, but he perked back up quickly. “Okay! Feel free to stop by again sometime though!” And then he wandered off, leaving a very confused Hope to close her portal and consider what she had learned about this bizarre skeleton</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. The White Void</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Since then, Hope had had several other interactions with the artist, who, true to his word, forgot almost everything about her in every interim period, and every time, she asked him not to give himself a reminder of her existence on his scarf. It wasn’t so much that he completely forgot her every time, he just needed his memory jogged. At least they didn’t have too many conversations over again. Hope didn’t mind solitude, most of the time, but when she needed to talk it was reassuring to know that he wouldn’t yak all over the multiverse about her, since he wouldn’t remember their conversation in five minutes. Most of the time though, she still preferred to observe, rather than engage in a conversation. Someday she’d get better at this social skills thing, she promised herself. Which led her to this Snowdin, in the aftermath of yet another fight between the destroyer and the guardian of the multiverse. She knew a reset would fix it all, but it was still a bit unfortunate seeing the dust and wreckage everywhere. No point staying here, though. She headed into the anti-void after them, curious if Error’s annoyance would mean a continuation of the conflict in the anti-void. That was always fairly dramatic, and the show made up for the risk that came with entering the anti-void: almost no places to hide. As she had expected, Error was sending wave after wave of various attacks at Ink, who either parried or dodged almost all of them, sustaining only a few small cuts. The whiteness all around was oppressive, more so because of Error’s strings hanging everywhere, weighed down with puppets, their blank eyes watching the fight along with Hope. She shivered. This was one of the glitch’s habits that truly unnerved her. He had, presumably made by himself, hundreds, maybe even thousands of tiny puppets in the likeness of Sanses of different universes he had killed. He talked to them, as though they were the skeletons they looked like, now just dust in an empty universe somewhere. He numbered them too, keeping creepily meticulous track of each of the universes he had destroyed, or that were on his “watch list”. Trying not to think about all the button-like eyes watching her, Hope sidled over to one of many strings dangling from the ceiling and tugged on it, making sure it was secure, before she started to climb. Previous experience had taught her that the safest place to be while in Error’s section of the anti-void was definitely up in the strings, mostly because there were literally no other hiding places. Once she reached the spiderweb-like roof, she yanked a couple strings down into a swing like structure and refocused on the battle below. Ink was hunkered down behind another wall of ink, which was filled with glitchy black bones, cracking it. Ink seemed fine though, peeking out from behind the wall to call to Error.</p><p><br/>“Not bored yet? Come on Error, we’ve both got stuff to do!”</p><p><br/>“Yeah,” Error yelled back “and I’ll get back to it once I’m through killing you!” He summoned a pair of Gaster blasters, firing them simultaneously at the ink wall a few seconds later. It shattered, and Ink jumped out from behind it, with his brush raised to deflect any shards. He rolled his eyelights.</p><p><br/>“All right then, if you really want me too.” he said in a rather singsong voice, reaching for the red bottle on his sash. His grin widened as he took a gulp, his eyelights turning into a red crosshair and skull. Error, rather wisely in Hopes opinion, immediately prepared more than a dozen Gaster blasters, obviously hoping to disable the enraged guardian quickly. This might have worked fairly well, if it wasn’t for the wave of shimmery rainbow bones that Ink immediately fired off, splintering the blasters into black shards that dissolved moments later. Before they were even gone, Error was running. Better to be humiliated by fleeing from a battle than be beaten senseless by Ink when he was on his infamous red paint. Ink, eyes narrowed and snarling, dashed after him moments later, finally on the offensive. He was shooting bones, slinging ink chains, and summoning blasters without mercy. If Error didn’t spend the vast majority of his time fighting desperate inhabitants of AUs fighting for their lives, he would have been skewered and disintegrated long ago. As it was, he ran for a good five minutes, clearly hoping to tire Ink out. Lucky for him, even when Ink was like this, he still wasn’t aiming to kill. After exhausting Error to a point that he would be too tired to go after any universe for a while, Ink waved a cheerful goodbye and left the glitch facedown on the floor, gasping. Hope, who had been following the frenzied running, stifled a laugh at the destroyer’s condition. For someone who spent his life chasing and killing people, his stamina was terrible. Still chuckling a bit, Hope set about pulling at the strings nearest to her, looking for the safest way down.</p><p><br/>That was when new strings grabbed her and dragged her toward the floor. In the space of a second, her thoughts went from amusement to panic, and her cloak was immediately flooded with pure black. She knew it was Error attacking her, but had no idea what to do about it. She never fought, never even had a reason to, so this was overwhelming on every level. On instinct, she reached for her staff, knowing if she did have to fight, it was safer to channel her magic through that. Unfortunately, Error chose that moment to fling it off into the anti-void. She could see it, sure, but is was far enough away that getting to it before Error stopped her was a near impossibility. Her thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a rather painful tugging sensation in her chest. She flipped around to see...her soul. Terrifying as this was, she was still fascinated. She had never seen her soul before. It was an upside down heart like most monsters, but had a slightly rounder shape. It was a pretty golden color, with lavender sparkles scattered across, but right down the middle, nearly splitting it in half, was a large, black, crack. It was filled in, but it still made her soul look alarmingly fragile. The blue strings currently wrapped around and crushing it weren’t helping with that either. Following the strings led her eyes to Error, who was clearly not as worn out as he had seemed. Hope made an effort to appear calm, despite her soul telling her to run for her life. Previous experience with him had taught her that panicking and yelling just got you killed faster. So she tried her best to look bored as he walked closer, as though he was no threat to her, but her shaking probably wasn’t helping to convince him. He was squinting at her, almost as if he was having trouble seeing her. To Hope’s surprise, he fished in his pocket with the hand not holding her soul out, withdrew a pair of round, red rimmed glasses, and put them on, somehow staying on despite his lack of ears. The fact that the glitch needed glasses was a complete shock to Hope, although, now that she thought about it, it made sense. He had never spotted her in any of the times she had wandered into the anti-void. She was just wondering how he fought without them when he finally spoke to her, interrupting her wandering thoughts.</p><p><br/>“All right. Who are you and what are you doing here?” His scowl deepened and he yanked on her soul a little bit, clearly impatient to get this conversation over with quickly and get back to his “job”.</p><p><br/>Hope winced, the feeling of the strings cutting into her soul was getting quite painful. She didn’t really want to talk to Error either though, let alone tell him all about herself. She had a feeling she would fall solidly into his category of “things that shouldn’t exist and need to be destroyed”. So she stayed quiet and still, looking as non threatening as possible.</p><p><br/>“Well?” He was starting to look angry again. “Are you going to answer?.... I guess not. Well, I’ll be back to deal with you later. ” And he just walked out, leaving her suspended rather painfully by her soul.</p><p><br/>She sighed and looked over where her staff had fallen. As she had hoped, it was gone. She closed her eyes and reached into the void to retrieve it, then slashed through the strings holding her up, being careful not to hit her soul. She dropped to the ground, but as she had only been a few feet above whatever the floor was in the void, it didn’t hurt. Anyone with a sense of self preservation would have gotten out as soon as they could, but Hope was not known for that at all. She quickly forgot how terrifying the resident of this place was. Instead, she took advantage of Error’s absence to explore the area where he lived. There wasn’t much. She did however, find a sizeable supply of chocolate, which, when she tasted it, turned out to be pepper flavored. It was spicy, but weirdly good. Other than that there were only the puppets and a single piece of furniture; a surprisingly comfy couch positioned in front of a window to another AU. Against all better judgement, Hope sat down with a peppery chocolate bar and started watching. It was in Spanish, so she couldn’t really understand it, but that didn’t prevent her enjoying the antics of the soap-opera like world. There were three gunfights in the first ten minutes she started watching, and she lost track of how many times someone got kidnapped. She had never seen somewhere quite like this. Only after what she assumed was several hours did it occur to her to wonder why this window was even here. Was it Error’s next target or something? She kind of hoped not. It was pretty entertaining after all. It then occurred to her that Error would probably be back soon. But the fact that he had seen her meant he would probably try to find her if she left anyway, so she decided to just stay put.</p><p><br/>Of course, Error did come back. He was in rather a good mood, as his bluff had let him get rid of the AU without any interference from Ink. He strolled into the anti-void, somehow whistling despite an obvious lack of lips and headed for the couch. He was not expecting someone also to be sitting in it already, but there she was. Munching a chocolate bar and looking like she owned the place.</p><p><br/>“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” He yelled. Hope jumped, choked on the chocolate and started coughing loudly. She turned around on the couch and gave a rather cheeky wave.</p><p><br/>“Hi Error. Back so soon?” She had decided that her best bet was to be confidently friendly. Of course, with very little interaction with anyone, this assessment was more of a shot in the dark than anything else. Worth a shot though. Mimicking what she had learned from her first meeting with Ink, she extended a hand “I’m Hope. Sorry for breaking in and stuff.”<br/>He didn’t even look at it. “Why are you still here? And where did you get that?” He indicated the chocolate bar.</p><p><br/>“There’s a big pile over there. Want one?” She stood up, dusting crumbs off her shirt.<br/>“No! They’re all mine to begin with!”</p><p><br/>“So, if you don’t want one, does that mean they’re mine now?” Hope grinned. Who knew talking to the evil killer of worlds would be so much fun?</p><p><br/>“No they are not! Give me that!” He snatched the chocolate bar she was currently eating. Stupid skeleton, why wasn’t she gone? He’d figured she’d run as soon as he left, if she was able. Whatever. If he ignored her, she’d go away, right? He sat down on the couch and started watching the AU inside. She sat back down too, and he groaned internally, getting as far away as possible.</p><p><br/>“So, why does everyone hate you?” she asked, “You actually seem pretty chill, when you’re not, you know, destroying stuff. Speaking of which, why do you do that?” Talking to Error was very different from talking to Ink, that was for sure. She found herself filling the conversation the way that Ink usually did, feeling awkward with the long pauses.</p><p><br/>To her surprise, Error actually answered her. “Because the multiverse is flawed. It’s full of suffering, and even happy worlds won’t stay that way forever. It’s a mercy, in the end.”</p><p><br/>Hope considered this. It actually kind of made sense. He was definitely right in that there was a lot of suffering happening. She’d seen worlds where all the inhabitants were starving slowly to death, or were killed over and over again for the sick amusement of the human that controlled the timeline. “Then why does Ink stop you from destroying the...unfortunate ones? I can see protecting the happy ones, but protecting a place like Axetale is just prolonging their misery, right?”</p><p><br/>“What do I care? He has his job, I have mine. I know I’m right and he’s wrong.”<br/>“I could...ask him?” Hope suggested rather tentatively.</p><p><br/>Error made his answer in the form of an even deeper scowl than he had been wearing previously “Are you with him? Another stupid “protector”?”</p><p><br/>“I don’t think so? I… don’t really know what I’m supposed to do. I kind of made up a job, but it’s not really a thing…” Great. Now Hope was going to have to deal with yet another existential crisis. Just how she wanted to spend the next day and a half.</p><p><br/>She hadn’t expected Error to be sympathetic, and was therefore not disappointed when he just shrugged and said “You should probably figure that out.” He stood up, stretched, and started to walk away. “I assume you’re leaving soon.”</p><p><br/>“I thought I was your prisoner. Or something like that.” Hope said, still sitting on the couch. “You aren’t interested in killing me?”</p><p><br/>“You’re obviously an outcode of some sort. As long as you don’t get in the way of my job, I don’t really care what you do. But stay out of the chocolate!” Still scowling, he pulled himself up toward the tangle of strings, and climbed into a hammock like shape Hope hadn’t noticed before. Huh. She wondered if he even needed to sleep or if he did it to have a sense of normalcy and routine, the way she did. She shrugged and wrapped her cloak around her. It didn’t really matter. Outcodes all seemed to have their own oddities, sleeping for no apparent reason just being one of the many. She stretched out on the couch, figuring if Error wasn’t going to kick her out, she may as well stick around. It was a lot nicer here than in the void after all. She pulled her hood over her eyes and fell asleep, her cloak’s color shifting to deep reds and pinks with the mood of her dreams.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Company</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hope sat up and immediately groaned, her spine popping in several places. She had forgotten how uncomfortable sleeping with gravity was, not to mention on a couch instead of a bed. She was momentarily disoriented by the white around her before remembering: she was in the anti-void. Where Error lived. She craned her neck upward to his hammock thing. Yep, he was still asleep. He hadn’t seemed the type to sleep in late to her. Not that time really flowed normally here, but it felt like late morning to noon. Looking around, she spotted a low hanging string that she could use to climb up into the web and wandered over, still wincing at the soreness in her back. No more sleeping on a couch for her. She dragged herself upward, finally reaching the tangle of strings above. It was pretty easy to get over to the hammock once she was up, the strings were so thick she could practically walk across. The fact that skeletons can’t close their eyes made it difficult to discern whether Error was awake, but his eyelights were out, so he certainly wasn’t paying attention regardless. She leaned precariously down and poked him, hard in the forehead. She was expecting him to be annoyed, but not to wake up glitchily screaming and fire off a pointed black bone that narrowly avoided impaling her. Hope had time to wonder what the heck was happening and whether she’d accidentally killed him. Then a bar, like on a computer screen, appeared above his head, reading “rebooting”. It took a good three minutes for the bar and glitches to disappear, which Hope put to good use getting back to ground level and fetching a bar of chocolate as an apology. She also picked up her staff from where she had left it the day before, just in case. Her precautions were wise. Error came jumping down slinging strings and bones and otherwise being really mad.</p><p><br/>“I’LL KILL YOU! I’LL-“ That was when Hope threw the chocolate bar at him and hit him in the back of the head, making sure to yell an apology as well.</p><p><br/>“Sorry! I didn’t know you would freak out like that!”</p><p><br/>His expression told her he didn’t really care for her method of apologizing. A blaster forming to her left reinforced this fact rather clearly a moment later. Accepting that she was probably going to have to fight him, she lifted her staff, which glowed brighter as she focused her magic towards it. As the blaster fired, she jumped to the right of the beam and charged the blaster, the orb on her staff sharpening into a blade moments before she slashed the blaster in two. She hadn’t really intended to make a sword, just something to fight. It certainly did the job though, she thought as she cut through the web of strings descending on her. Her initial panic faded as the fight went on. She continued cutting through the various attacks he threw, finding herself actually enjoying it in an odd way. Even on the rare occasion a hit landed somewhat, the pain didn’t bother her for more than a minute before fading away. Still, even though this wasn’t too hard, Hope noticed herself tiring rather quickly. She supposed it made sense, considering how little she really did in the physical activity department. It was only a matter of time before an attack that she wouldn’t be able to avoid occurred. More dodging, more slashing. The inevitable attack came in the form of glitched bones, far too many to reasonably block or dodge in her current state. So she did what any creature with magic does in such a situation, and flung all her readily available magic in a formless attack in front of her, hoping to deflect at least some of the missiles before they landed. She was expecting to be able to redirect about half of them. What she was not expecting was to create what appeared to be a black hole, warping reality and sucking in all the bones before collapsing in on itself. As soon as it disappeared, the magic on the tip of her staff went out, along with the orbs she kept in the sash across her chest, falling to the ground as gray dust. She leaned heavily on her now basically useless staff as she tried to catch her breath and figure out what she just did. She also remembered the angry black skeleton she was fighting and looked toward where he had last been standing. He was still there, but now looking much more wary than angry.</p><p><br/>“What the hell was that?!” He demanded.</p><p><br/>Hope just shrugged “I have no idea. I’ve never done it before.” She attempted to stand up straight, and promptly fell over unconscious, the exhaustion and confusion hitting her all at once.</p><p><br/>Unsurprisingly, when she came to, she was securely tied up, dangling a good ten feet above the floor. Her soul was out again, tied up nearby, and Error was standing in front of her, looking...nervous maybe? She wasn’t so much terrified as uncomfortable. Some of the strings were digging into her ribs. It could wait though. She kind of needed to figure out what had happened that had ticked off Error so much. She was a little fuzzy on the events of the morning as a whole.</p><p><br/>“So...why were you so mad?” she asked, figuring the direct approach was best. “What did I do, anyway?”</p><p><br/>Error gave her a look of deep disgust. “You poked me.”</p><p><br/>“And you retaliated by nearly murdering me? That’s reasonable how?”</p><p><br/>“You’re in no position to correct me.” he snarled.</p><p><br/>“You know,” Hope said, “I’m beginning to think your philosophies are limited to ‘I’m right’ and ‘you’re wrong’. Am I the only one who sees a problem with this?”</p><p><br/>“I have haphephobia, you idiot! I didn’t attack you because I always have to be right!”<br/>“Hape-what-now? Is that a disease or something?” Hope’s interest was piqued.</p><p><br/>“It’s a fear of being touched. It literally hurts me!” He snapped.</p><p><br/>Now Hope really felt bad. She knew it was a bad idea talking to people, not to mention attempting to make friends, and now she’d messed up all over again. “...I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I...I really don’t know very much. I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t know how I did...whatever happened back there, and I certainly don’t know how to make friends. I just...wanted to try again, you know?” Liquid magic was gathering in the corners of her eyes, the closest thing a skeleton can get to tears.</p><p><br/>Error did not appear to be moved in a good way by this emotional display. “STOP….THAT.”<br/>Hope gave shaky “Sorry”, but tears came anyway, purple and yellow dripping and pooling on her cheekbones. She hadn’t had an outburst in a long time, was starting to hope she had gotten over her issues. She should have just stayed in the void and disappeared. She didn’t even notice when she was dropped, none too gently, to the floor. She just lay there until something poked her in the head.</p><p><br/>“Are you going to get up or what? I don’t have time for this.” She heard Error say above her.<br/>She lifted her head a bit to look at him. He was holding her staff (rather cautiously, she noticed), and it was clearly what he’d used to prod her in the head. “Yeah”, she said, standing up and taking back her staff, carefully avoiding touching him. “So...do you want me to leave or…” she looked at him hopefully. Sure, he was supposed to be evil, but he was the best company she’d ever had, and now that she knew about his ‘issue’ she could be really careful not to get too close to him.</p><p><br/>“I have to get to work. I’m behind. At least three worlds need to die today.” His expression was not as sympathetic as she had hoped, but at least he seemed to get that she was sorry.<br/>“Can I come?” she blurted out, surprising herself with her boldness. She must have been more lonely than she thought.</p><p><br/>Error looked surprised, then suspicious, then thoughtful. He considered for a few minutes before answering “Fine, but you have to explain how you know Ink. Also, if you interfere with my work, I will kill you.”</p><p><br/>Hope had stopped listening after the fine. “Thank you! Where to first?”</p><p><br/>“And you must stay at least six feet away at all times. And you must be quiet.” he hissed.<br/>“Oh...okay” she said, stepping away and lowering her voice.</p><p><br/>“We are going to the universe inhabited by abomination #476” he said, ignoring her questioning glance. He pulled open a hole in the anti-void, and stepped through, shutting it as soon as Hope followed him. He had brought them to Waterfall, the star-like crystals that made it so beautiful shimmering above, but in this universe, they were joined by icicles, most of which looked to be hundreds of feet long. It was also freezing cold, colder than any Snowdin she’d ever visited.</p><p><br/>“W-why is it s-so cold?” She shivered, wrapping her starry cloak tighter around herself. Technically, skeletons shouldn’t be able to feel temperature, but it seemed like a lot of them did anyway. Error started walking, with Hope trailing the required six feet behind.<br/>“Don’t whine. You wanted to come. Now explain how you know Ink.” Error didn’t seem bothered by the cold at all.</p><p><br/>“I m-met him in the Doodle Sphere.”</p><p><br/>“Why were you following him around?”</p><p><br/>“T-that was the job I m-made up…”</p><p><br/>Error gave her a look “You know that’s creepy, right?”<br/>She nodded sadly. “Sometimes I would talk to him, but he always forgot about me pretty fast.”</p><p><br/>Error almost laughed. “That’s what you get for talking to that psycho. Worst memory in the multiverse and no soul to boot.”</p><p><br/>Hope wanted to argue that by many’s standards, Error was the psycho, not Ink, but for once thought better of it. Error was already in a pretty bad mood.</p><p><br/>“So you don’t really know Ink all that well then, do you?” Error asked, stopping and turning around to look at her.</p><p><br/>She shook her head. “He’s...complicated.”</p><p><br/>“That’s an understatement. Well, if you don’t know anymore, I have a job to do. Stay here until I finish.”</p><p><br/>“B-but I’m cold!”</p><p><br/>“You could help, if you prefer!” Error was clearly assuming she shared Ink’s views on the multiverse and would be appalled by the idea.</p><p><br/>Hope’s morals, however, were not as defined as he assumed. She shrugged. “S-sure. I just don’t really know how to f-fight very well. I also don’t have strings of d-death. Also, if I do, c-can you help me with something?”</p><p><br/>“Probably not. It’s not like I really need your help or anything.Just...break stuff, or stay out of the way, okay? I need to go restrain the kid and the flower. Feel free to make another black hole.” He went strolling in the direction of Hotland, pulling rocks down along the passage as he went.</p><p><br/>Break stuff, huh? That actually sounded like fun. Besides, it wasn’t like she had a reason not to. She certainly wasn’t any sort of protector. Agh, now she was just thinking herself in circles.</p><p><br/>“Here goes.” She muttered to herself, lifting her staff. The magic at the top appeared fully replenished, and her magic reserves seemed at full strength as well. She would prefer not to pass out this time, if at all possible, so the black hole was a last resort. Instead, she made the orb stretch into a scythe-like blade, reminiscent of one she had seen in the hands of the god of death at one point, but the usual magenta of her magic. After swinging it around experimentally a few times, she started slicing into the nearby vegetation and crystals. Being made of magic, the scythe was significantly sharper than a normal blade, and cut through everything, even the rocks, like butter. She was just hacking out sections of the wall and tossing them into the chasms below, laughing more than a little maniacally, when she heard familiar screams from up ahead. Error must have started already, she thought, rather admiring his efficiency. Eager to watch the spectacle, she abandoned her attack on the wall and ran in the direction Error had gone.</p><p><br/>As she had expected, he had begun his attack on Hotland, but was facing fairly decent resistance from the locals, most of whom seemed to possess some variety of ice elemental magic. Undyne was flinging spears that appeared to be rods of ice sharpened to a wicked point. On Error’s other side, Mettaton was somehow simultaneously figure skating and attacking, turning it into some sort of weird dance show, complete with lights and music. Of course he was, Hope thought, he thought everything was just for the sake of his television career, no matter what universe it was. On the other side of the battle, the Core sat humming loudly, almost drowning out Mettaton’s completely pointless commentary on the battle.</p><p><br/>It was then that something occurred to Hope. “Hey, Error!” She yelled.</p><p><br/>“What are you doing? I told you to stay out of the way!” He snarled back.</p><p><br/>“I am! I just had an idea! Do you have to get everyone by hand or could we cause some sort of disaster and destroy the place?”</p><p><br/>“What?” Either he hadn’t heard her or he didn’t know what she was getting at.</p><p><br/>“CAN WE BLOW UP THE CORE?” She screeched, then immediately clapped her hands over her mouth as all the monsters in the vicinity turned towards her. She gave a weak laugh. “I was just kidding…?” she tried. They didn’t buy it. Hope suddenly found herself under all the attacks that Error had moments before, but with no experience on fighting except that one fight with Error, and she suspected he had been hesitating somewhat. These monsters definitely weren’t.</p><p><br/>“Kill her! She’s another destroyer!”</p><p><br/>“Ow! No I’m not!” Hope ran toward the core, but found her way blocked by Alphys. Without thinking, she summoned the scythe end and attacked.</p><p><br/>A dust cloud surrounded her, coloring her clothes in a pale grey. Then Hope gasped, as an odd feeling spread through her soul, and her guilt at the lizard monster’s death suddenly diminished. She reached for her soul to check on it, see what had happened, but in doing so completely let her guard down.</p><p><br/>The next moment she found herself pierced by several icicle spears, with a seriously ticked off fish right behind them. Morbidly curious to replicate her experience, she swung her still active scythe. Undyne narrowly avoided it, and Hope entered the first serious fight of her life.</p><p><br/>Undyne clearly had the upper hand in experience, while Hope had her deadly weapon and high pain threshold, not to mention no idea what her HP actually was. She had never checked her stats. Undyne mostly fought from a distance, flinging spears in increasingly difficult to dodge patterns. Hope caught several more spears in the chest before finally conceding to her need for help.</p><p><br/>“Error! Help!”</p><p><br/>“Just stab her.”</p><p><br/>“I’m trying! She keeps dodging me!”</p><p><br/>“You have more than one attack. And I’m busy!” Looking over, Hope saw that he was indeed busy, dueling Mettaton and Muffet, who had shown up shortly after Hope.</p><p><br/>“Don’t you do this all the time? Shouldn’t you be better at it by now?” she griped, attacking Undyne once again. That fish really was a good fighter. A blue glow enveloped the floor beneath Hope, and she scampered out of the way to avoid being skewered by the spears that came up seconds later. Deciding to take Error’s advice, she gathered up some magic and attempted to form a blaster, something she’d seen others use in battle before. She had assumed it was something they all skeletons could do, but never actually tried it. She was really starting to regret not trying a lot of this stuff earlier. Concentrating as hard as she could while also not dying, she flung a hand forward and created… a tiny violet tinted skull, maybe six inches long. Well. That was a bit disappointing. At least something happened, she thought, dispelling the little thing almost immediately. It wasn’t worth the drain on her magic to keep it active. Her lapse in concentration unfortunately got her another injury, this time in her right arm.</p><p><br/>“This needs to end fast, or I’m going to die” she realized. Her eyes darted around, searching for something that could be of an advantage to her. There! High above, hanging from the ceiling, were more of the massive icicles she’d seen earlier. Running briefly out of Undyne’s range, she dispelled her scythe and ripped open a portal that came out right next to the icicles above. Reactivating her scythe as quickly as possible, she slashed through several of them, sending a rain of spikes down below. Success.</p><p><br/>It was then that she realized how high she was, and that she was falling too. She braced for the impact, but it didn’t come. Instead, blue strings yanked her off to the side, toward the core.</p><p><br/>“Oh, now you help me” she grumbled, but was grateful nonetheless. Seeing Error dive into a portal as the world around them dissolved into whiteness and glitch, she pulled open a portal too. She did look back as she fell through though, feeling a glimmer of regret for the death of the icy AU.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Introductions</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hope just lay on the ground for a while, exhausted and injured, while Error made a few calls on his cell phone. It occurred to her to wonder where he’d gotten it, but it was far from her top priority right now. After about an hour, she finally felt well enough to get to her feet. She was still quite unsteady and leaned heavily on her staff. She settled onto the couch and began to inspect her various wounds. Her right forearm was cracked, a couple ribs, and possibly her spine were also broken. She used some magic to seal off the wounds, but was wary of trying anything more. Healing magic was not among her known talents, and she was far too drained to try to heal herself anyway. Her magic was barely operational, her eyelights dim and flickering in and out of existence.</p>
<p>“Error?” She called. “You there?”</p>
<p>He came around the couch, still on the phone, and made a shushing motion. “Yeah, I’ll be there in a bit. I’ll bring them.” He hung up the phone, pocketed it, and gave her a look “That was very stupid.”</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“Gee, maybe the cave-in!” He snapped.</p>
<p>“Oh. That. In all fairness, I was getting killed.” she reasoned. “Besides, it was sort of helpful, right?”</p>
<p>“I’m not dealing with this right now. Get up, we’re going somewhere.”</p>
<p>“Where?” And why did it have to be right now? He saw what kind of shape she was in, right? She wondered if he just didn’t care.</p>
<p>“You wanted to meet people, right?” He tapped his foot impatiently. “I was going to talk to them anyway, and they’re… curious about you, let’s say.”</p>
<p>“I don’t suppose I could find someone to heal me first?” She said hopefully.</p>
<p>He shook his head. “Actually, it’s better that you meet them in this state.”</p>
<p>“...Why? Should I be be nervous?”</p>
<p>“Yes, but you wanted this so shut up.” He flipped around, clearly done arguing, and ripped open a portal. Looking through, Hope was surprised to see somewhere she recognized quite easily; Dreamtale. She dragged herself off the couch and through the gate, her curiosity far outweighing her pain.</p>
<p>Dreamtale looked much the same as when she had last seen it, bleak and empty. She limped to the shattered stump of the tree of feelings and slid down to sit in front of it, probably getting at least a dozen splinters but not caring a bit. As it turned out, she was not immortal in any sense, and currently felt closer to death than she ever had. Error didn’t seem concerned at all, he was busy scouring the area’s hiding spots, obviously concerned about someone spying on whatever meeting was about to occur.</p>
<p>“Hey...who are you meeting anyway?” She mumbled. She was ignored, or maybe just spoke too quietly to hear, so she shrugged and closed her eye sockets.</p>
<p>She assumed she had dozed off, because she woke to voices that certainly hadn’t been there before. She didn’t open her eyes at first, just listened, trying to figure out what exactly was going on.</p>
<p>“Is he here yet?” That voice was low, with an oddly melancholic cadence.</p>
<p>“Does he look like he’s here?” This one was angry, a tad rougher, but sounded a lot like another voice she knew.</p>
<p>“If he ain’t here soon, I’m gonna take a bite-“ This voice, closer to a growl, was interrupted very quickly by another.</p>
<p>“What was that, Horror? It couldn’t have been…thoughts of disobedience? Because we know what the punishment for that is...don’t we.” The final voice startled Hope into opening her eyes. She knew that one. She hadn’t heard it in a very long time, and it was distorted, but she still knew it.</p>
<p>Her eyes were immediately met with four skeletons clustered around her, three of them looking toward the fourth who hardly looked like a skeleton at all. He was covered a goopy black substance and he had four enormous tentacles coming out of his back that appeared to be made of the same stuff. It was Nightmare, the one who had destroyed this world to begin with. </p>
<p>“C-course not boss…” one of them, who must have been Horror, muttered. He was holding a large, bloodstained axe, fingering the head as if he couldn’t wait to sink it in to something. Hope was beginning to think that attending this meeting was a bad idea.</p>
<p>“That’s what I thought.” Nightmare hissed, slapping Horror with one of those hideous tentacles. Horror barely flinched, just turned his head to minimize the blow. Hope gasped when she saw the back of his head. A large chunk was just missing, leaving an ugly jagged hole behind. She shivered a bit. Ugly wounds didn’t usually bother her, but this atmosphere and these people were getting more than a little unnerving.</p>
<p>One of the other skeletons finally looked down at her. He had no eyelights, and black was dripping out of the empty sockets, looking a lot like Error’s blue tear tracks. She wondered how Error knew these people. They didn’t seem like the nicest crowd. “She’s up.”</p>
<p>“I know, Killer. She’s been listening.” Nightmare’s attention shifted toward her, and she instinctively shrank in a little. She did not like the evil grin that spread on his face, or the way her left eye socket stung with sudden pain as he looked at her.</p>
<p>Well, now seemed as good a time as any to leave. She reached behind her and found...nothing. Nightmare’s grin got even wider. “Did you lose something?” He asked, his voice dripping with mocking sympathy.</p>
<p>Hope attempted to stand, then remembered all her broken bones as they throbbed in unison, making her gasp and fall back against the tree. Apparently what sleep she had gotten was not enough to fix injuries this bad. She was going to have to see a healer after all.</p>
<p>“So, Error, why do we care? Why this outcode? ” asked the melancholy voice. It belonged to the last skeleton of the group, who looked a lot like classic Sans except for the fact that he was wearing his hood up and his eyelights were red, with the left having a blue center.</p>
<p>“Because of this, Dust.” Error stepped out from behind the tree, and pulled out Hope’s soul once again. Its gold and lavender glow illuminated the greedy expression on Nightmare’s face.<br/>“But she’s not Dream.” Killer said. “Where did she get it?”</p>
<p>“Doesn’t matter right now.” Nightmare hissed. “We’re taking her.”</p>
<p>“Wait, what?” Hope finally interrupted. She was not liking the direction this conversation was taking.</p>
<p>In an instant, a knife, held by Killer, was pressed against her neck bones. She flinched, leaning away from the sharp blade. At least her soul was back where it belonged, having been released by Error a few seconds earlier.</p>
<p>“Let’s go.” Nightmare ordered. “Keep her alive for now, but there’s no need to be gentle either.” Horror was first to comply, dragging Hope to her feet. She yelped in protest, almost collapsing again almost immediately. The skeleton called Dust caught her, but clearly with no gentlemanly intent. He and Horror, together dragging Hope, followed Nightmare, who opened a portal. Hope couldn’t see anything on the other side, just pitch black, dark as the void. But it couldn’t be the void, she thought, she had never once known any of these individuals to have the capability to travel through the void. The skeletons at her side hesitated briefly, looking at Nightmare again, who nodded, before they dragged her through after him.</p>
<p>“Cell four is empty, I believe?” Nightmare asked somewhere up ahead. Hope’s eyes were slowly adjusting to the dark. As she had suspected, it wasn’t the void, but a hallway, and based off the appearance and the sound of their footsteps, it was made of stone.</p>
<p>“Yes.” replied Killer from somewhere behind her. “Our last guest...departed recently.” He gave a chuckle, and Hope could just imagine the crazy grin on his face.</p>
<p>“Put her there for now then you two.” Nightmare said “I’ll deal with her later. Killer, make sure there are no traces of us left in Dreamtale. If you aren’t back in ten minutes, I will leave you there for Ink and Dream to find.”</p>
<p>“Yes boss.” his voice answered, then footsteps were heard, heading back the way they had come. The remainder of the group only walked a short ways farther before reaching an iron barred door. Nightmare reached into a pocket, withdrew a set of keys, and unlocked it. Dust and Horror shoved Hope in a moment later, hard enough that she fell to the floor, hissing with pain. The door slamming shut behind her. Left alone in the dark, Hope groaned. Her magic was getting weaker by the minute, and she was now caught by Nightmare, basically betrayed by Error, and locked in a cold miserable cell. This was way too much to handle right now. She wrapped her cloak tighter around herself, curled into a shivering ball, and tried to sleep. Even when she finally did though, her cloak stayed as black as a night with no moon.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, several rooms away, her captors were holding a rather informal meeting. Nightmare was standing at the head of a long, rather beat up wooden table, with Dust and Horror sitting on either side. Nightmare was tapping the table with his long fingers impatiently. A few minutes later. Killer walked in the door, followed by a rather sulky looking Error.</p>
<p>“Finally.” Horror grumbled, setting aside his axe, which he had been playing with as usual. “Took ya long enough.”</p>
<p>“Don’t remember you offering to do it.” Killer hissed, pointing his knife at Horror. </p>
<p>Dust didn’t appear to be paying attention to this exchange, but was murmuring over his shoulder. “I know, Papyrus. I’m not fond of it either, but we don’t have any better options.”<br/>“Talkin’ to your imaginary friend again, Dust?” Horror sneered. Dust slowly turned his head, staring Horror down with his creepily mismatched eyes. Horror looked away first.</p>
<p>“Shut up, all of you.” Nightmare snapped. “As much as I love the negativity, we’re not here to satisfy your need to fight constantly. We’re here to figure out our latest prisoner. Obviously she isn’t Dream, but she has a soul very similar to the apples of the tree of feelings. The-“<br/>“Why don’t we just kill her and take it then?” Killer interrupted, then quailed as Nightmare raised a tentacle threateningly.<br/>“Don’t interrupt me.” He hissed “If Dream, or anyone else has figured out a way to give monsters souls like his, or make something that mimics the apples, this could be a real problem.”<br/>“Want me to get it out of her, boss?” Horror grinned wider, hefting his axe.<br/>“Would all of you idiots shut up and let me finish!” Nightmare slammed his fists down on the table. Everyone except Error instantly shrank back, muttering apologies. “That’s better. And yes, Horror, you can have a turn first thing tomorrow. We’re going to need to get this fast, so if you fail, Killer or Dust is next. I’ll consider rewarding whoever can get it out of her first. Clear? Now get out of my sight.”<br/>Everyone hurried from the room, no one eager to be punished for slowness, except Error, who walked deliberately slowly, just to show he didn’t answer to Nightmare, and Dust, who continued murmuring over his shoulder, hardly listening to Nightmare at all. When they finally got out the door, Nightmare slammed the door shut behind them and slumped down into the chair at the head of the table. “Morons…” he grumbled.</p>
<p>After leaving the room, everyone had gone their separate ways. Horror went to select his tools for the next day, Killer to his room of the castle, and Error, after brief hesitation, back to the anti-void. Dust, however, headed back down the hallway they had come, still muttering too quietly for anyone else to hear more than a few bits and pieces. “...just curious…won’t...her...why not?” He stopped, both moving and speaking, in front of the cell Hope was in. If he hadn’t known she was there it would be hard to see her. Her cloak was still dark, and since her back was turned the only thing that was visible were the scattered silver stars, twinkling in the pitch black fabric. Her slow breathing seemed to indicate she was asleep, each breath rasping a bit as it left her. Dust didn’t move, didn’t say anything, just stood and watched her for a while, and when it became apparent she wasn’t going to wake up for some time, slowly turned and stalked back up the hall toward the main rooms of the castle.<br/>The next morning, Hope started awake to a loud clanging; someone was banging on the cell door. She turned slowly to see Horror standing in the doorway, holding a length of chain threateningly. She started back, suddenly remembering where she was, the events of the previous day rushing back. At least her injuries seem to have partially mended overnight, she observed, as Horror dragged her out of the cell and down the hall, her hands securely tied with the chain he had brought. They passed several other cells, most of them empty, others occupied by a variety of monsters, but no humans that Hope saw. Stopping at the last door at the end of the hall, Horror pulled out a set of keys and unlocked it, then shoved Hope inside, making her glad she had healed so much overnight, or she likely wouldn’t have been able to keep her balance. She looked around. The room was small, had no windows, and appeared to have at one point been white. Now though, most of the room was stained with a rusty red color, and whitish powder coated much of the surface. Hope gulped. She had seen enough of the multiverse to recognize both of those substances; blood and dust. She jumped as the door slammed shut behind Horror. He shoved her to the far end of the room and attached the chain around her wrists to a ring in the wall.</p>
<p>“Ready for some fun?” he asked. “Cause I sure am.” Hope winced as she felt a now familiar tugging sensation and her soul came out, lighting up the dingy room.</p>
<p>“P-please don’t..” she said quietly. She didn’t even want to know what his intentions were, and she had no idea how to prevent him from doing whatever he was doing either.</p>
<p>As she had expected, he ignored her. “The boss is curious about this, see?” He pointed at her soul “It looks an awful lot like somethin’ we’ve been after for a while.” Now he was digging around in a bag he must have brought with him. “I’ll start out nice. D’ ya know a guy named Dream?”</p>
<p>Why did he want to know about Dream? She hesitated, then said “S-sort of. I’ve never spoken to him, only seen him.” Maybe if she was honest, she could avoid any further issues with this group of skeletons.</p>
<p>Apparently she was wrong. “Then why’s your soul look just like his?” Horror snapped at her. He stepped forward, grabbed the still hovering soul, and squeezed it in his fist. Hope shrieked, doubling over as far as the chain would allow. Why did it hurt so much? Nothing in her life had ever caused her as much pain as that. If she hadn’t been so terrified, she would have been fascinated. She opened her eyes and straightened up slightly as the pain faded, only to see Horror still holding her soul, a needle poised over it.</p>
<p>“No no no please don’t!” She cried. “I swear I don’t know Dream, I only saw him a few times years and years ago!”</p>
<p>“Ya sure?” Horror growled, dancing the needle around the golden soul.<br/>She nodded, frantically, hoping against hope that he would let her be now.<br/>He didn’t. The needle slid a good inch into her soul before she could even react, and it was too much. She slumped to the floor, unconscious again.</p>
<p>“Ya can’t even take that?” Horror grumbled, letting her soul fly back to her. “This ain’t gonna be any fun.” He put everything back into the bag and left, still grumbling about the pathetic torture tolerance of his latest victim.</p>
<p>A few minutes later, he may Nightmare in the hall. “Well?” his boss asked “How did it go?”<br/>He snorted “She passed out before I even got started. She’s gonna be no fun at all.”<br/>Nightmare’s expression remained blank. “I see. Should I take this as an indication of your failure then?”</p>
<p>Horror seemed to pale “N-no boss, I just-“ </p>
<p>“Shut up.” Nightmare hissed. “Clearly you are losing your touch. I’m giving her to Dust.”<br/>Horror looked greatly disappointed, but knew to keep his mouth shut. He just nodded and continued down the hall toward the wing of the castle where his room was.</p>
<p>Nightmare altered his course. He had been headed to the meeting room, but now he wanted to find Dust. He was usually wandering the halls, talking to himself, most of the day, but he did have a pattern, and this hallway was his usual spot at this time of the morning. Sure enough, within a few minutes, Dust could be seen at the end of the dead-end hall, pacing slowly back and forth, muttering all the while.</p>
<p>“Dust.” Nightmare stopped in front of him, forcing him to stop his pacing.<br/>“Nightmare.” Dust replied slowly.<br/>“I’m giving our latest prisoner to you. She’s apparently too fragile for Horror or Killer to work with. I need you to figure her out, and as quickly as possible. Don’t kill her until you’re done, but anything else is open. The sooner the better.”</p>
<p>Dust nodded slowly, his glowing eyes never leaving Nightmare, then turned and walked slowly in the direction of the dungeons. Nightmare watched him until he turned a corner, then returned to his day, assured that this issue would be resolved quickly</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Regrets</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Hope blinked awake and sat up cautiously, but her concern was unwarranted. The two nights without continued physical injury had allowed her to heal to a point that simple movement was no longer painful. She supposed it was something to be grateful for, even if she wasn’t in a particularly grateful mood. She looked around the room for any indication of how long she had been out. It hadn’t felt long, but she knew better than to trust her instincts of time at the moment. Nothing was noticeably changed. She was still tied to the ring in the wall, the room was still as full of dust and bloodstains as before, and her magic was still on the fritz.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She straightened up as much as she could when she heard footsteps outside her door. A moment later it opened, and Hope recognized the skeleton standing there as the one they had called Dust. He blinked slowly, then walked in and locked the door behind him again. He didn’t immediately say anything, but pulled out her soul. Hope winced, but he didn’t harm it, just examined it for a few minutes before letting it float back to her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“LV 3...” he said.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hope tilted her head slightly in confusion. What was he talking about?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Who did you kill?” He asked “At least a few…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hope blinked, slightly startled. How did he know? Had he seen it in her soul? Was that was what LV was? She remembered the icy world she had helped to kill and looked at the floor. Knowing what it felt like to be trapped and terrified for her life like they must have been...it made her feel so much worse about it. She looked back toward Dust. “I...don’t know.” she said quietly. “There was an Alphys, and Undyne, and Mettaton, maybe Muffet…I-I didn’t think…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dust didn’t look surprised at all. “You were right, Papyrus…” he said quietly addressing his shoulder.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hope looked where he was talking. She didn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>see </span>
  </em>
  <span>anything, but maybe… She reached out with her magic, expecting to find an invisible monster perhaps, but instead found a soul. A monster soul, somehow lingering without a body. Both her eyes glowed for a moment, then she could see it. It was nothing more than a floating head, scarf and hands, but was clearly recognizable as Papyrus. How was that possible? “Is that...your brother?” She said quietly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dust’s eyes jumped back to her immediately. “You can see him? He’s real then?” He seemed strangely relieved by this until Hope realized why. He must have though he was truly going insane, that his brother was only in his head.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hope nodded. “Yeah, I see him. Why...why is he following you?” She had been about to ask how he died, but she thought she could guess, and she didn’t want to make Dust angry.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I...I killed everyone. Even him.” Dust said. He looked so sad. If Hope could she would have given him a hug.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why?” she asked</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He sat down in front of the door. Hope noticed that Papyrus followed his movements, hovering over his right shoulder no matter where Dust moved, even floating in sync with his breathing. “Because I wanted to stop the human. That’s what it always is, isn’t it? I though if I got enough LV before they did, I could stop them, force them to stop the resets and genocide runs, and save everyone.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hope nodded sadly. She had seen genocide runs before, the dust everywhere-. Dust. She suddenly realized where he had gotten his name. “Did it work?” She asked, already knowing the answer, but wanting to hear it from him anyway.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No. They still killed me. And we did it again, and again, and again. And then, when everyone was dead, killed by </span>
  <em>
    <span>me, </span>
  </em>
  <span>over and over again, then the human stopped coming back. They died for real, never reloaded, just left me there, all alone.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And then…?” she asked hesitantly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Papyrus was my only company, until Nightmare showed up. He offered me an escape from my world if I came to work with him. I said yes, without thinking once of the consequences. Now, I’m trapped again, with a new tormentor that I chose for myself.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You can’t leave?” she said</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He gave humorless laugh. “If you break a deal with Nightmare, you’re worse off than dead.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...Are you going to kill me then?” she asked quietly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...Maybe not.” he said “Are you going to tell me what Nightmare needs to know?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Gladly!” she said. “But I don’t know it either. I don’t know Dream that well. I only saw him before the tree was destroyed and-“</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dust interrupted her “You were there? How old are you?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hope opened her mouth to answer, then realized she honestly had no idea. “I.. don’t know?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Start from the beginning then” he said “I’ve got plenty of time.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hope hesitated for a moment, not sure if telling him was the best idea. It was certainly preferable to torture though, and the look he was giving her told her that if being nice didn’t work, that was next on the menu. “I came from the void.” she started “The first AU I found was Dreamtale, back when things were still pretty good there. I spent a lot of time there, and I enjoyed it, even if I wasn’t talking to anyone. Eventually, my magic and a bit of my appearance changed to reflect that.” She indicated her differently colored eyes. “I must have gotten pretty close, because when Nightmare...changed, and the balance of the world was broken, it hurt me too. That’s where this crack came from.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How did your soul get so much like the apples?” he asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I think it’s just part of linking with a world. My soul just changed to be like the other souls there.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So your soul wouldn’t be usable as the last golden apple for Nightmare.” he guessed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She shook her head. “I don’t think so. It’s not really one of the apples, it just looks similar.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, that’s unfortunate for you then.” he said.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“If you don’t have anything Nightmare needs, you’re as good as dead now that you’re here.” He said flatly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh” was all she could say to that. It wasn’t that she wasn’t afraid of death, it was more that she didn’t know what to do. Too much had happened too fast. A thought occurred to her. It probably wasn’t wise of her to discuss it with Dust, but she was enjoying talking to him, so she risked it. “Could I escape?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He gave her a look. “What kind of prisoner asks their captor if they can escape? Have you never done this before?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No. Why would I have?” she asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Most outcodes who have been alive for five hundred years have been held prisoner at one time or another.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Five hundred years?! I’m five hundred?” she shrieked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s how old Dream and Nightmare are. I guess you really don’t know much, do you?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, yeah, I know I’m naive. Can you answer my question though? Or better yet, can you tell me if anyone else has ever escaped?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why? Why should I help you get out?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hope thought for a moment then said “Because if you do...I’ll come back and help you too.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He actually laughed then. “How on earth can you possibly help me?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She was a little annoyed that he hadn’t taken her offer seriously, but she supposed it kind of made sense. She probably seemed pretty ridiculous to him. “I don’t know, but I can try,” she pressed “What if I could break your deal with Nightmare, or help fix your world?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He didn’t say anything for a few minutes. Then, quietly, he said, “Abyss. He escaped from here, and we still aren’t sure exactly how. But he had help from outside. You don’t.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, but all I need is to get out of this cell so I can use my magic, then I can leave.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No one but Nightmare can open portals to other AUs here.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I won’t open a portal to an AU. I come from the void, remember? That’s how I travel.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What if I refuse to let you go? What if I killed you right now?” Papyrus glared at him, but he ignored it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Then I suppose I die,” she said, “but then nothing is going to get better for either of us, will it?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I suppose not.” He stood, and reached for the keys. Hope’s soul jumped, then fell as he said. “I’ll be back later. I need to tell Nightmare what he wants.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...Ok.” she said.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He walked out, and she heard the lock click, dashing any lingering hopes she had. She sighed. At least her magic was slowly returning. It seemed like the room was making it weaker as well, but she had been able to use it enough to see Papyrus. Maybe she could bring her staff to herself. She reached behind her with still chained arms, and concentrated. Nothing. She would have to try again later. She sat back down and tried to get comfortable. She wasn’t sure what time it was, but she had nothing better to do, so she might as well try to get some rest and continue to recover. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A few hours later, Hope started awake again, but this time not to someone at her cell door. In fact, she couldn’t discern any reason for her to have woken up. It was dark in the hall outside, the torches that lit it out for the night. She stood up and squinted, peering out the small barred window in the door. Nothing. She shrugged and sat back down, intending to go back to sleep, when she felt something </span>
  <em>
    <span>shift. </span>
  </em>
  <span>It felt like a reset, but different, larger, perhaps. She felt momentarily nauseous, despite her lack of internal organs, and her vision blurred.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is this some sort of punishment?” she called,“What good is this doing anybody? I already told you what you wanted, right?” Still no response, and she was feeling sicker by the second. Her soul fluttered anxiously as she wondered if she had been poisoned. But she hadn’t eaten anything since she’d gotten here, and the needle that Horror had put in her soul would have done something faster, right?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oww..” She groaned and sank down to the floor again as another wave of nausea hit her. Why was this happening to her? Wasn’t she miserable enough? And then, just as she thought she couldn’t feel worse, a bolt of pain shot through her, her vision blacked completely, and a screech, like metal scraping against itself, filled her nonexistent ears. When it finally stopped, she fell into the soft blackness of her mind, the only escape she had in that room.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Whether she passed out from pain or simply blacked out from whatever was happening she didn’t know, but she woke up on the floor with a blistering headache. She winced as she sat up again. It would be really nice if she could stop keeling over unconscious, she thought, wincing from the soreness in her still-bound wrists. A small noise on the corner made her freeze. She turned her head slowly. There was someone else in the cell with her.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Strangers</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“Hello..?” Hope said softly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A tiny whimper coming from the corner allowed her to pinpoint the location of her new visitor. They were small, looked to be quite young, maybe early teens? They seemed to be huddled in the corner, their head buried in their hands, but she could make out enough to tell that it seemed to be another skeleton. Of course. She was starting to wonder if she had imagined there being any other species in the multiverse. “I promise I won’t hurt you…” she murmured, hoping she sounded reassuring.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It must have lifted its head, because a few moments later she saw little eyelights, a dark aqua color with tiny white centers. Above them was a small mark in the shape of a crescent moon, glowing the same color as the eyes, and similarly colored lines also came out from the outsides and undersides of the eyes. It was actually rather neat looking. She gave him a small smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They didn’t return it, just flinched back with wide eyes. “W-who are you?” He stammered. The voice was unmistakably that of a boy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope had no qualms about being honest with him. He was just a kid after all. “My name is Hope,” she said. “I’m a skeleton, like you, see?” She leaned forward and let her eyelights glow brighter, illuminating her features more clearly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where are my dad and mom?” He asked, small tears welling in his eyes. “They were just here and then they disappeared. Do you know them?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh no. Where had this kid come from? It seemed unlikely that her captors had put him there intentionally, so she had to assume he was in as much danger as she was here. No point panicking him though, better stick to small talk, help him figure out what to do. “What are your parents names?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“N-nightmare and Killer.” he said, smiling just a little bit. “But Uncle Dust and Uncle Error take care of me a lot too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope inhaled sharply. Even with her extremely limited knowledge of those two, it was pretty far fetched to imagine that they had a kid. “Keep it simple, Hope.” She muttered to herself. “What’s your name?” She asked, returning her attention to her new cell mate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Crescent.” He said, sounding slightly less terrified. At least he was less shaky and panicked looking.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s a nice name. Is it because of that little mark on your forehead?” she asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He nodded.</span>
</p><p><span>They sat in silence for a while, until the lights in the hall outside all flooded on at once, presumably activated by magic. Hope jumped. They would be coming back soon, and that meant this kid, Crescent, was going to be discovered in here with her.</span> <span>Getting out of here as quickly as possible just became imperative. She reached out again for her magic, her eyes crunched tight in concentration. </span></p><p>
  <span>Still nothing. She made a small noise of frustration.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey...Crescent, right? Are you awake?” She said, leaning toward him a bit. “Can you do something for me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He started and lifted his head. “W-what is it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can you come over here for a minute?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why?” he said warily, his eyes narrowing slightly “What are you trying to do?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nothing. I just need to talk to you.” she said, rather unconvincingly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He stood up, and Hope was able to get a better look at him. His bones weren’t anywhere near as black as Error’s, more of a medium grey. He was wearing a black and blue striped jacket with a purple sweater underneath. His boots were the same colors as his jacket, and his accessorizing was minimal, just a pendant, brown with a yellow shape resembling a save star in the center. Coming from his mid back were four tentacles, like Nightmare’s, but smooth, not drippy, and with an aqua tint at the end. Well. That basically ruled out that he was lying about at least one of his parents. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t come over to Hope, just stood there, looking suspiciously at her. Now that his initial fear had worn off, he seemed determined to convince her he was fine by himself. She sighed internally, but didn’t really blame him. With his parents he was bound to have some trust issues.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She changed tack. “Listen. We’re in danger here. See?” She leaned to the side so he could see her hands chained behind her. “I need you to cooperate if we want to get out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But this is my Dad’s castle. I’m safe here.” He said “What did you do wrong to get locked up, anyway?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nothing. I just happen to have something that looks a lot like something else they want.” She grumbled, still rather bitter over her treatment thus far. She opened her mouth to complain further, but was interrupted by the sound of footsteps in the hallway. No more time for persuasion. “Get down! Back in the corner!” She hissed “And stay there until I say it’s safe.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He looked annoyed, but the urgency in her tone seemed to convince him a bit, as he slowly backed into the corner and slid to the floor again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Just in time too. The lock clicked, and the door swung open moments later, fortunately in front of Crescent, hiding him from view. Standing in the now open doorway was Killer, holding a tray with some rather unappetizing looking food on it. Some sort of thin soup maybe, and a slice of dry bread. Pretty standard prisoner fare really, Hope supposed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The boss isn’t done with ya yet.” He said, walking into the cell, “So lucky you, you get food.” He set the tray down on the floor in front of her. “Have fun.” He grinned wickedly and turned around to leave the cell. That was when the door started to close by itself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, not really by itself. It was being pushed by the skeleton behind it. Crescent poked his head out from behind it, looking up at Killer. “Dad?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Killer was actually startled into stillness and silence for a moment, but the next was cackling harshly. “Don’t know what you’re smokin’ kid, but I’m sure as hell not a dad. Certainly not to some little wimp like you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Crescent somehow managed to look both heartbroken and furious at the same time “I know you don’t like me, but pretending you don’t even know me?” He snarled “I’m your son!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Killer just snorted. “Sure, whatever.” Behind his back, he drew a knife from the several on his belt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Crescent, look out!” Hope said, yanking on the chains again. “He’ll hurt you!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s right, kid,” Killer drawled “Your dear dad won’t hesitate to get rid of you...soon as we have some fun of course.” He suddenly lunged forward, knives now in both hands, stabbing in the general direction of Crescent's face. Crescent flung up a tentacle to block him and it took both hits, the knives sinking into deep gashes that leaked tarry black fluid. Crescent recoiled, yelling “Ow!”, and looked back at Killer, his eyes wide and horrified. Then he turned and dashed out the now open door. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Killer made a frustrated noise, rounding on Hope. “Alright, where’d that kid come from? We’re done dealing with your fake ignorance. Ugh...I have to catch that brat. You have until I get back to come up with some answers. And they better be damn good ones!” He dashed out, turning left as Crescent had.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope just sat there for a few moments, gathering her thoughts, then resumed her tugging at the chains, a hurried plan running through her head. First things first; get out of these chains. Her magic was back to near full strength, and the constant yanking had to have worn down the chain somewhat anyway. Next, find the kid. As dumb as it sounded, Hope felt like saving him was her second chance, a way of making up for her sadistic, unrepentant murder spree with Error. Third, get the hell out of this castle. She wasn’t sure if she could travel through the void with Crescent, but she was going to have to try, because if they had to get out on foot their chances of survival dwindled to practically nil.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope was forced to pause in her yanking to give her throbbing wrists a break, but without the scraping filling her ears, she could hear something else. It was a low, low humming, almost too low to hear, vibrating through her bones from her soul. It was the sound of her magic! She didn’t know for certain what changed, maybe the fact that the cell door was still open, but it didn’t matter. Her hands reached behind her once more, and this time, the steady weight of her staff landed in them, glowing brighter than usual, as though happy to be back with her. One scythe slice later, she was dashing out of the cell, tripping on legs that hadn’t been used in days.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She headed left, same as Crescent and Killer had, not running at top speed, but a slower pace she could maintain for a while. Better to save her energy for the fight that would surely come as soon as she caught up with them. She passed several rooms, most of which were cells like hers, before reaching a fork. She skidded to a stop, head jerking indecisively back and forth. She was about to head left again, when she felt something...odd in her soul. It was a bit like a pulse, if souls had those, but one that pulled instead of pushed. Focusing on it, it was clearly pulling to the right. She dithered for a few more seconds before following it to the right, and at the next fork, straight, then left, right… This castle was huge! Even through her focus on her task, she found herself wondering what in the multiverse Nightmare’s gang needed with this much space. Her head was yanked back down off the clouds by a yell from up ahead. She redoubled her speed, skidding into a hall just in time to see Killer, who had Crescent cornered, slash the kid across the chest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He crumpled, and Killer stepped back,his grin as wide as ever. It faded a bit though, when he saw Hope standing there. Even though she was winded and sore, she looked livid, her darker eye blazing bright and staff flung out in front of her in what was clearly on offensive stance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A wave of her magenta bones had Killer leaping to the left, forcing Hope to dispel them before they hit Crescent, who was still lying face down where he had fallen, showing no signs of life. Killer tried to get behind him, realizing Hope didn’t want to hurt him, but a few attacks and a little maneuvering let Hope put her back to the fallen skeleton and allowed her to focus on attack. Being a Sans, Killer was exceptional at dodging, but Hope knew just a few hits would have him out of the fight. When he came in close to attack with his knives, she paused in her bone attacks to slash at him with her staff. He was expecting it though, and danced backward out of the way before it was even close.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t be stupid,” he laughed, slicing a bone in two moments before it impaled him, “There’s no way some nobody outcode can take down anyone in this castle.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope didn’t bother answering him, she knew his chatter was only meant to distract and discourage her. She twitched to the side to avoid a knife flying toward her head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not the talking type, huh? Shame. I like a good battle chat my-“ His annoying banter was cut off as Hope finally landed a hit, slamming a bone into his chest and sending him flying into the wall. He hit it with a loud crack, and lay limp. He probably had quite a few broken bones, and wasn’t going to be doing anything for a while. She was tempted to finish him off, but time was very, very short. She slung her staff across her back and turned around. Crescent was still there, not yet dust, which meant he could still be saved. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She picked him up and ran, zigzagging through the halls randomly, until she found a hall filled with storage rooms, stacked high with crates and barrels. She slipped inside one, leaving the door cracked so she could hear if anyone was coming. She looked down, then cursed quietly as she realized that Crescent was still bleeding badly, maybe even enough to have left a trail. She set him down on a crate, and gathered up her magic. It was lucky her fight had ended when it did, or she wouldn’t have had enough magic left to make a portal to the void. As it was, her vision dimmed a bit, and she swayed, before recovering enough to flip around and grab Crescent. She hesitated, once again questioning the safety of taking him into the void, but already knew there was no other option. She picked him up and turned to go. Just in time, too. She heard voices down the hall, and running footsteps. She jumped through the portal just as the door was flung open, and several axes buried themselves in the wood next to her. A moment later though, it closed, and she was again in the liquid black of the void. But this time, she wasn’t alone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She let go of Crescent, and he floated, suspended in the odd gravity of the void, while she examined his injuries. Besides the slash to the chest, there were the two deep cuts in the tentacle, and a few other, smaller cuts, that he must have gotten while running from Killer. She bit her tongue and tried to think. She’d never had a reason to use healing magic before, but there was no reason she shouldn’t be able to, with a little work. Starting smaller was probably a good idea, since she had no idea how much it would take out of her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tentatively, she reached out a hand, laying it on the injured tentacle. It was as smooth as it looked, nothing like Nightmare’s dripping goo. She closed her eyes, concentrating like she did when summoning her staff, but now focusing on something else, healing. Under her closed eye sockets, her right, golden eye, began to glow. Beneath her hand the black liquid slowly stopped its flow, and the ugly gashes gradually knitted back together. By the time she opened her eyes, it was almost fully healed. She allowed herself a small smile, relieved she was able to help. After she finished there, she moved onto the other, smaller cuts, before finally confronting the biggest problem, that cut to the chest. It was clearly visible, as his shirt and jacket had also been slashed straight though by Killer’s knife, which was obviously kept razor sharp at all times. His ribs were still oozing black, cracked and fragile. She was afraid of making it worse by touching it, so she hovered her hand an inch from the bone and refocused her magic. It healed much more slowly than the other injuries had, and it was nowhere near reformed when Hope was forced to stop, her magic not used to such strain.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She stepped back, breathing heavily, her adrenaline rush from their desperate escape all but gone. It would be a bit before she was fit to do anything, including any more healing, but at least Crescent seemed more stable now, less likely to dust the moment she turned her back. He hadn’t woken up, but she wasn’t really expecting him to. She wouldn’t have been surprised if he had to sleep for quite a while to repair those injuries naturally.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>While she waited for her magic to recover, which thankfully didn’t take too long, she attempted to discern what part of the void she was in. It seemed to be near where she had first come from, as she could sense the entrance to Dreamtale not too far away. Now that she was oriented, it was easy to locate the nearest weak spot in the void that led to the Doodle Sphere. She checked on Crescent before she left, but he was still out cold, so she headed out, hoping she would be back by the time he woke up. She knew the void could be quite unsettling if you weren’t used to it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her portal opened up near the center of the Doodle Sphere, as it usually did, near the biggest and most well known AUs. She was looking for two things: someone that could help her heal Crescent the rest of the way without asking any awkward questions, and an AU that was empty that she could take him to to recover. She wanted to get back as quickly as possible, with minimal interaction with anyone if at all possible.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Unfortunately for her, Ink was home.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hi!” He chirped, giving a cheerful wave. “How are you? I haven’t see you in a while! Or maybe I just forgot?” He frowned in concentration for a brief moment, then grinned again and shrugged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope barely held in an exasperated groan, and attempted to deter him quickly. “Oh, I’m fine. We just talked the other day.” She was lying of course, it had been weeks if not longer, but he was less likely to want to chat if he thought she had nothing new to share.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay then! I was just going to Underswap, want to come?” He extended a hand, still smiling. He must have had yellow paint recently to be this chipper.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No thanks,” she said, walking past him, “I’m actually busy at the moment.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What with? Are you looking for something?” He had apparently decided whatever she was doing was more interesting than Underswap at the moment, and was now following her, half jogging because his legs were shorter than hers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ugh. Maybe answering honestly would make him get bored and go back to whatever he was doing. “Yeah, I’m actually looking for a healer.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I could help, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How? Your paint only works on you, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He shook his head cheerfully “Of course not! I can use it on anyone. Are you hurt or something?” His hand was halfway to his light blue vial when she shook her head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, a...friend of mine got a bad injury. I tried, but I can’t get him healed all the way. It’s just too deep.” She had stopped, and was now looking at Ink appraisingly, wondering whether to trust him with this. A few days ago she would have been certain the answer was yes, but Error’s betrayal and her subsequent experiences in Nightmare’s castle had made her much more wary about everyone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do I know your friend?” Ink asked, eyelights changing with every one of his rapid blinks. Spiral, star, exclamation point, asterisk, square, circle, triangle. It was dizzying to watch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t you know everyone?” She said, momentarily distracted. Did his eyes </span>
  <em>
    <span>ever </span>
  </em>
  <span>stop changing?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He shook his head again. “The multiverse is infinite. I can’t know everybody!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well,” she replied “his name is Crescent. Ring any bells?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ink looked up toward the ceiling of the Doodle Sphere, biting his tongue in thought. Hope was not surprised to see that it was rainbow. A few moments later, he said “Nope, never heard of him!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope wasn’t sure if it was good or bad that Ink had never heard of him, but her mind was made up regardless. Her newfound caution wasn’t strong enough to prevent getting Crescent help, and Ink was one of the people she felt she knew best, and trusted most. At least his goals seemed noble, although Error seemed to think otherwise. But who cared what he thought anyways?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She returned her attention to the artist, leaning forward and down so she was on eye level with him. “If I bring my friend here, will you help him?” She was pretty sure he would, but asking was always a good idea.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He looked back at her, eyes settling on a flower like shape and a question mark. Then he nodded again. “Sure. Now?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The sooner the better. I’ll be right back.” She walked a few feet away before ripping open the void, stepping out near where she had left Crescent. Nothing had changed since she had left. She breathed a small sigh of relief before picking him up again and carrying him through the portal, which she had left open behind her. She carefully set him down on the “floor” of the Doodle Sphere in front of Ink, and looked at him, a tiny bit nervously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ink didn’t say anything at first, but took a small sip from the same light blue vial he had reached for earlier. He then proceeded to poke, none too gently, Hope observed, at the injury, before saying. “Yeah, I can fix this. Knife wound, right?” He pulled a paintbrush off of his sash, hovering over the gash.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope nodded. “Yeah. A guy named Killer. Works for another skeleton named Nightmare.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ink didn’t look at all surprised. “So you ran into the Nightmare crew, huh?” He began to paint the ribs back into their proper shape, with the calm precision of someone who had done this many times before.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope don’t know what to say. It wasn’t like she could calmly explain that “yes, I was hanging around with your enemy, destroying worlds with him, then he suddenly decided to turn me in to his pals, the king of evil and his troupe”. She stammered awkwardly for a few seconds before mumbling “Yeah, basically.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A rather heavy silence hung in the air for the rest of the time it took Ink to return Crescent’s ribs to their proper shape. Or it seemed heavy to Hope at least. Ink didn’t seem to notice, focusing on his patient. He even fixed his shirt and jacket overtop once he was done with the healing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There!” He said, stepping back with a rather pleased expression. “All better. He should wake up soon.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope exhaled, relieved both that Crescent was healed, and that Ink hadn’t asked any questions about how she’d gotten involved with Nightmare’s gang.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She picked up the kid again, basically used to the weight by now, and opened yet another portal. Before she left though, she turned around to look at Ink again. “Thank you.” she said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He just nodded, smiling, and she walked back into the blackness she knew so well.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. New Places and Faces</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>It was a good couple of hours before Crescent woke up, and Hope put them to good use racking her brains, trying to think of any AUs she knew of that were both empty and inhabitable. There weren’t many, maybe two or three off the top of her head. She’d just take him to all of them and see which one he liked. If he even decided to stay, of course. Who knows, he might have somewhere to go.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A groan from behind her alerted her that her guest was finally up. She stopped the pacing she had been doing and walked over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How do you feel? You should be healed up, but it’s always possible we missed something.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He stood up, moving gingerly at first, but it was quickly apparent that he was fine. Ink had done an excellent job. Crescent’s head suddenly snapped up, looking around with an expression of discomfort. “Where is this? It’s so dark…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh. Right. She should probably explain. “This is the void.” She said. “It’s….kind of where I live. But don’t worry! I know you can’t stay here. I’m already looking for a place you can go.” She paused for a moment, looking away. “Unless you have somewhere else to go, of course…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He seemed to shrink in a little, and his hand went to his ribs, seeming to feel the injury all over again. “No. I don’t.” His expression stayed impressively neutral, but the dimming of his eyes gave his emotional state away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope frowned a bit, feeling sorry for him. “If you’re feeling up to it, we can go see some of them now.” Maybe some distraction would be good for him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He sighed. “Fine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright then. Just give me a second…” she turned away from him, drew her staff, and pulled open a portal to the first world she had thought of. It had been a genocidal world before the human got tired and left it behind for good. So many years had passed since the last reset that the dust from fallen monsters was all but gone, and the heavy, foreboding feeling had started to dissipate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She stepped to the side, letting Crescent through the gateway first. The underground they walked into was very close to the “origin world”, as the inhabitants, now long gone. had been the unusual part. Hope couldn’t recall exactly why though. Ink had mentioned it once. Maybe they were all bug like? That seemed right. Regardless, it was now completely empty.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well?” She turned to Crescent. “What do you think?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What am I supposed to say?” He said, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking away. “Why do I have to pick somewhere, anyway?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because I have no idea if being in the void will kill you or not.” Hope said, rather bluntly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then why did you take me there before?!” He said, getting angry. “I could have died then too!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope scowled, her left eye glowing brighter. “The alternative was certain death, at the hands of your supposed dad. Is that what you prefer? And while we’re on the topic, I think you have some explaining to do! Where the hell did you come from?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He looked at the floor, miserably “...I don’t know. It’s not like I wanted to come here. I was sitting in my room, felt sick, and then I was in that cell instead. There’s nothing more to it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope sighed. There was no point grilling him further. He was genuinely just a kid, somehow out of place in the world. Dark blue tears began to trickle down his still hanging head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now Hope really felt like a jerk. Her indigo eye dimmed, almost out of sight, and the yellow brightened as she put a tentative hand on Crescent’s shoulder. Surprisingly, he twitched, but permitted it. “I’m sorry. I’m just confused, like you, and I want to help you, but I don’t know how.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He gave a tiny sniff, took a deep breath, and replied “...It’s okay. And here is fine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It took her a moment to realize what he was talking about. “You sure? There are other universes we could look at.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, this is good. Are you sure...they won’t find me here?” He finally looked up, his expression full of all the betrayal and fear he had felt since their escape.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I can stay for a while, if that would help. And maybe we could set up some hiding places. You should pick a place to stay first though. Do you know the main areas?” She gestured to the underground around them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He just blinked, so she started walking, giving explanations as she went. “Well, this is the ruins. It contains the first city, called Home. After this is Snowdin, and it’s the coldest, but if that doesn’t bother you there are lots of nice houses there…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They wandered for hours, getting all the way through Waterfall before taking a break. Crescent seemed to like the starry gems in the ceiling there. Hope made a mental note to take him to Outertale sometime. They sat down near one of the little streams that ran through, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere for a while. Hope noticed some glowing blue flowers nearby. “Oh! These are cool.” She said, reaching out and pulling one close. “Watch.” She murmured into it, then turned the head toward her companion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello….” it whispered, sounding like a voice from beyond the grave. Crescent just looked at it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Neat, huh?” Hope said. She released the flower head and it sprung back, waving wildly for a bit.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I guess.” He said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was thinking it could be useful. Since I have to be away, I could use them if I need to tell you something.” She stood up, dusting pollen off of her shirt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...Are you leaving already?” He looked up, his face blank again, impossible to read.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I need to get you food, don’t I?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...I guess.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then I’ll be back later. Do you know where you’ll be?” She opened a portal, but didn’t go through, waiting for his answer first.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll...stay here I guess.” He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket. “I’ll just wait till you get back. Do you have one of these?” He held up the device.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shook her head. “I’ve never really had anyone I needed to call before. I’ll get one while I’m out.” Then she stepped through into the void, leaving him huddled by the river, listening to the murmur of the echo flowers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope wasn’t really gone long, just a couple quick stops in several of the more prosperous worlds for food, and a visit to the Asgore of an Underswap universe for a phone. It couldn’t have taken more than a couple hours, but it still made her nervous. Maybe she should check on what the Nightmare crew was up to. No. Too dangerous. Better to get back to her friend and make sure everything was okay.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her portal came out in Waterfall, but she still had to walk for a good ten minutes before reaching where she had left Crescent. He was lying on the ground, curled up. Hope’s eyes widened. Was he dead? What could have happened in the short time she left? She dropped the things she was carrying and hurried over. “Crescent!?” She shook him, hard. That was when a tentacle swung up and slapped her, hard enough to knock her into the nearby river. She floundered for a minute before remembering how to swim. It had been a while since she’d had to, after all. A hand reached out, and she grabbed it, pulling herself out of the chilly water. It turned out to belong to Crescent, who was wearing an odd expression, some sort of combination of trying not to laugh, self righteousness, and apology. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope was the first to say something. “I brought food.” She pointed to the bags she had fortunately set down before her apparently unjustified panic began. “And a phone.” She reached into a pocket to withdraw the device, which she had also very luckily already protected with magic. “I have no idea how to use it or anything though...Help?” She held it out to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t take it. His tentacles drooped, as did the rest of him. “...Sorry.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For...what exactly? Good reflexes?” She joked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He half smiled. “Yeah, I guess.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry about it.” She said. “I can take a lot. Besides, it was my fault. I knew you were probably fine, I just panicked for no good reason.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He took the phone. “First you have to set it up. Put in your name here, then you can set the password…” As she had hoped, the device was a good distraction for him, although he did complain that it was very outdated. After fiddling with it for a while, they stopped for...lunch? Dinner? Whatever it was, it helped heal the slight remaining injuries Hope had from their escape. Hope had grabbed a little of everything with no particular plan, so the meal was some sort of pasta with a vegetable sauce, all cooked over a tiny, gently smoldering, gaster blaster. Oh well, it was filling, even if it wasn’t the best thing she had ever had. For dessert, she pulled out a chocolate bar and split it in half, handing the rest to Crescent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Afterward, Hope helped him carry the rest of the food to a house near the middle of Waterfall. It had probably been Undyne’s at one point. The place needed a bit of cleanup, but was otherwise in excellent condition. As she swept the floor, her mind wandering as usual, Hope once again felt that odd tugging feeling in her soul, faint, but clear once she was focusing on it. She looked up at Crescent. He had his back to her, digging through the cupboards above the stove. Experimentally, she moved to the other end of the room, then toward the stairs. No matter where she went, it always pulled toward the kid who was now looking at her curiously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you doing?” He asked, piling cans into the now cleaned out cupboards.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just checking something.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like what, how many stairs there are?” He looked skeptical.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shrugged, and started helping with the food. Since the Core of this underground was still operational, all the electronic devices were working fine, including the refrigerator and, hopefully, the elevators in Hotland and New Home. “Are you good for a while then?” She asked “Since I have a phone now and you can get me if you need me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I might be gone longer this time. I want to check something out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay.” He had turned on the television, flicking through various types of static. Hope made a note to herself to try to get something on it, hook it up to another universe’s signal perhaps. She walked out the door, straight into a portal, and ended up in the Doodle Sphere. Ink seemed to be out, but she didn’t need him at the moment anyway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She went to the center, as close to the origin world as possible, before sitting down and sighing, her head in her hands. She let her thoughts wander for a bit, thinking about the nightmares, Ink, Crescent, all the things she wanted to do, then refocused on what she had come here for in the first place. Breathing slowly, she let her soul pull as it pleased. She wanted to see if she could still sense where the kid was even out in the multiverse. She felt a slight yank, and grinned, but it quickly turned into a frown as the next second pulled in another direction, then another. There were at least two, probably more, things pulling on her soul, calling her to different universes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright, this is a little weird” she said to herself. “I...guess I’ll go see what the others are?” She started walking, following the strongest tug. As she did so, she started to notice that they all had a different feel to them. She thought she could tell which one Crescent’s was, but the others were foreign. They had the feel of souls though.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She followed it a good ways out, toward worlds that were less closely connected to the beginning, before finally stopping in front of a paper, which, sensing her wish to enter it, unfolded into a gateway. She froze for a moment. It was Dreamtale. Once a beautiful arch, half gold, half ebony, the gate had disintegrated along with the world, deteriorating into a shadow of itself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope forced herself to go through, reminding herself that Nightmare was not here anymore. There was no reason for her not to be here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The first thing she noticed, and that she had overlooked the last time she had been there, was that Dream was gone. She wondered how long he had been free. Hopefully quite some time. She continued to follow the pull, which led her past the tree, and toward the ruined town. She slowed down once she entered, taking in the destruction. Although she had only seen this place from a distance before its destruction, she could imagine how nice it had been, with orderly rows of neat little houses, a large town square with a fountain, people living happily, in the shadow of the tree that brought the beautiful balance that had initially pulled Hope here. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She sat down in the edge of the fountain and sighed. The tugging had only grown stronger as she got closer to the middle of town, but she wanted to just stop for a bit, and think. Why did it always have to be Dreamtale? No matter what, something always seemed to drag her back here. Maybe it was good. Maybe it would only take her a little over five hundred years to get over what had happened. Or maybe she just did this to herself. That seemed pretty likely too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She stood up and resumed her search for the source of the pull, following it all the way through the town and out into the fields beyond. The emptiness was so different from what she was used to. It was neither peaceful like the void or full of life like the Doodle Sphere. It was just...dead. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thoughts like these hovered in her head as she approached one of the few structures out in the fields. It was an old barn, in relatively good condition because of its distance from the tree and accompanying disaster, and it was where the ever-more obvious tugging was leading her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The door creaked loudly as Hope opened it, and she flinched, expecting someone or something to attack her. But the only thing to greet her was a mountain of baled hay, stacked nearly to the ceiling. Mildly disappointing if she was going to be perfectly honest. A quick glance around, however, showed her that there were plenty of areas not filled by hay, and she began a methodical check of the building, poking her head into every nook and cranny she found.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anyone here?” She called, the idea occurring to her about twenty minutes into her search. She wasn’t really expecting an answer, so she wasn’t too disappointed when all the reply she got was the rustle of wind through the holes in the roof.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She sighed again, replacing a tarp over some old farming equipment, and brushed the loose hay from her clothes. There weren’t exactly a bunch of places to hide in this barn. If there were something here she would have found it already, right? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A tiny scrabbling beneath her made her Hope jump, before she realized it was probably just mice or something. She forced herself to take deep breaths. “Calm down, Hope. It’s just an old barn. There’s probably no one here anyway...you’re just being silly…” She kept up a steady muttering of self encouragement as she crept toward one of the last places she had yet to check, behind the mound of hay. It was nearly up against the back wall, but there was enough room for someone to get back there, if they were determined enough. She pushed her head into the gap, and when nothing happened, shoved the rest of the way in, cautiously though. She didn’t want the whole pile of hay to collapse on her. A bit toward the other end of the pile, an even smaller hole became visible, and it appeared to lead toward the middle of the pile. She got down on her hands and knees to get a better look through. It opened up after a few feet, into what appeared to be a small room inside the hay mound. She could see someone had put in a carpet, and some sort of light, based on the glow emanating from the hidden room. Briefly questioning the wisdom of it, she crawled through. It was clearly intended for someone smaller than her though, and it took her a good five minutes to wriggle through without causing a hay cave-in. Her staff got stuck, and she ended up having to summon it to herself halfway through to avoid leaving it where she couldn’t reach it easily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Once inside, she attempted to straighten up, but only succeeded in smacking her head against a piece of wood whose purpose seemed to be to help hold the roof up. She managed not to yell in pain though, merely hissing, and lowering back down toward the floor. Now that she was in the room, she could see that it actually wasn’t the only one. Mercifully larger tunnels led off to the right and left of the room she was in. When she poked her head into them, they turned out to be bedrooms. They were nearly identical in size, but clearly belonged to different people. One had a bed with grey sheets, a closet filled various black shirts and pants, and a pair of skates leaning against “wall”. The other bed had lavender sheets, and the closet was packed with elegant, but clearly comfortable and functional, dresses. Some had a sunlike pattern on the chest, and Hope did a double take, realizing she had seen that symbol before. Where had it been?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was so preoccupied that at first she didn’t hear the voices from outside, and the rustling that meant someone was coming in through the tunnel. The minute she did though, she spun around, left eye glowing and staff raised, to confront them. She cautiously ducked back into the central room, only to jump and slam her head into the beams again when whoever had come in shrieked in surprise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Lux! There’s someone in here!” They yelled. Hope’s eyes were watering with pain, so she couldn’t see very clearly, but the voice sounded like a young boy’s. Another kid?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Another voice, clearly female, which must have belonged to whoever Lux was, answered his call from the tunnel. “Who is it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know! Get in here!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m coming! Give me a minute, ok?” The rustling grew louder, then stopped as the second person came out of the tunnel into the little room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>By this time, Hope’s eyes had mostly cleared, and she could see the pair in front of her. Both were skeletons, but the taller of the two, a girl, had some sort of lavender colored hair, the same color as the sheets in the bedroom. It didn’t really seem to be hair though, it behaved more like a magical fire, and on closer inspection, was actually emanating from a jagged crack in her skull. The shorter one was fairly normal looking for a skeleton, but had mismatched eyes, the right round and yellow, the other red and star shaped. He was wearing a gold circlet with a similarly shaped star in the center, and was holding a silvery blade, currently glowing with orange magic and pointed at Hope’s chest. It was meant to be intimidating, but as he wasn’t older than twelve, it came across rather cute, and Hope grinned a little despite her nervousness. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hi.” She said, raising a hand in a rather awkward wave.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He just scowled at her, then turned to Lux “What do we do with her?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lux just sighed. “She’s not a prisoner, Star. Stop taking everything so seriously, and for goodness sake stop pointing a knife at her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He hesitated briefly before reluctantly sheathing the weapon, grumbling “It’s a cutlass, not a knife.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lux just rolled her eyes, turning her attention back to hope. “My apologies for my brother.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s all fine.” Hope shrugged, “At least he didn’t actually stab me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lux smiled a bit. “I suppose we should introduce ourselves, although you’ve heard our names already. I am Lux, and this is Starcross.” She gave him a look, and he gave a small, very reluctant nod in her direction.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m Hope.” she replied. A silence filled the room for a few moments, before Hope spoke again. “Um, can we maybe go outside? It’s a bit...cramped in here, is all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lux nodded once, elegantly, “Certainly. However, I do have some questions I wish to ask you, if you are not opposed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure thing. Lead the way.” Hope replied. She was glad at least one of them was open to trusting her. She looked back at Starcross, hoping he was seeing she was not intent on hurting either of them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was still scowling though. “I’ll follow behind,” he said “So we know she actually goes where she’s supposed to.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Several uncomfortable minutes later, all three of them stood outside in the barn, covered in bits of hay.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fire away.” Hope said, picking a rather uncomfortable strand out of her eye socket.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where to begin?” Lux mused “How about this. Do you-“</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How did you find us?” Star interrupted “Why were you looking for us at all?” His scowl somehow got even deeper, and his left eye started glitching.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Star! Be careful!” Lux said warningly, reaching toward him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> “Ah!” His hand clutched his left side, eyes back to normal, but squinting with pain.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lux frowned at him, but it was a frown of concern rather than annoyance as she knelt down next to him. “Deep breaths...just calm down, you’ll be okay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope stood off to the side, feeling rather awkward again as she had no idea what was going on or how to help. “Should I go outside or….?” Her voice trailed off when she realized they weren’t listening to her. She stood off to the side as Lux helped the younger skeleton recover from whatever odd pain had struck him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was only a few moments before both returned to their feet, Starcross still clutching his side. “Is he ok?” Hope said, tilting her head a bit in confusion. The skeleton had no physical injuries that she could see, so she was rather curious as to what had caused his sudden pain.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.” Lux replied, dusting the hay from the front of her dress. “Or, he will be in a moment.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If you’re sure.” Hope muttered, not really convinced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I am.” Lux said firmly. “Now, where was I…Ah.” She looked straight at Hope again. “Do you know our parents whereabouts?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, you guys are siblings? And who are your parents anyway?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lux seemed surprised Hope didn’t know, but shrugged it off quickly. “Yes, Star and I are indeed siblings. And I would be surprised if you hadn’t at least heard of one of our parents. They are Cross, the x-event, and Dream, guardian of positivity.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Searching and Being Found</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Hope couldn’t say anything for a while, except for some small, completely unintelligible noises, she just stared at Lux, taking in what she had heard. Really, though, she realized, it shouldn’t have been such a surprise. Dream had clearly been free for years, it made sense he had settled down and had a family. But who the heck was Cross? She had never heard of them, had no idea if they were even a skeleton. Although, based on the appearances of Starcross and Lux, it was fairly safe to assume they were. Rather belatedly, Hope remembered she was in the middle of a conversation, and coughed awkwardly before getting out “Uh...I’ve seen Dream before.” What was it Lux had wanted to know? Oh! “I haven’t seen him in a long time though. Doesn’t he have like a phone or something you could call him with?” Hope hadn’t had a phone until recently, but it seemed like most people did, so she figured it was worth a shot.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Unfortunately. Lux just shook her head. “He does have a phone of course, but he isn’t picking up, and we have called him...many times.” She frowned, worry showing through her calm demeanor.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m sure he’s fine. You’d...probably be able to tell if the last golden apple of the multiverse was gone, especially if the bearer was your parent.” Hope said, trying to be optimistic. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lux gave a small, slightly sad, smile “We believe that as well, which is why we have not left to seek out our parents ourselves until recently. Unfortunately we have difficulty traveling the multiverse ourselves, and have had no success finding either of them.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hope nodded slowly. “That makes sense. One quick thing though, why did they leave you in a barn?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That is one of the many recent oddities. This is actually our house, or it was. Dream wanted to return to Dreamtale, but Cross felt it would be good for Dream to live a ways away from the tree itself. He spent a long time fixing it up for him to be comfortable here.” She gave a rather disappointed look at the hay and machinery around them. “A day or two ago, our house turned into...this. It was around the time we lost communication with our parents as well.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I can help you get into somewhere central, like the Doodle Sphere, if you want to keep looking for them.” Hope had no objection to helping them, but it seemed like they were having more of a “finding their parents” problem than the “parents rejecting their child” issue that she was currently dealing with with Crescent.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Starcross finally chimed back into the conversation, eyes back to normal, but still looking as suspicious as before. “How can we trust you? You might be with Nightmare or something!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hope wanted to give a sarcastic laugh, but limited herself to an annoyed, incredulous look. “I am definitely </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>with him. He held me prisoner and ordered his subordinates to torture me.” She said flatly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He looked unmoved. “He does that to his followers too.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hope frowned, starting to get impatient with his aggressive suspicion. “Fine, say I’m with Nightmare. I don’t really care what you think about me. I’m offering you a way to get easier access to the rest of the multiverse. Take it, or don’t.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Star opened his mouth for an angry retort, but Lux stepped in front of him. “Thank you for your offer.” She said, shooting her brother a look. “It is most kind of you, and would save us a lot of trouble. If you do not mind though, I do wish to first ask how you found us. I don’t believe you have any ill intent, but I do not want any who do to be able to take advantage of whatever led you here.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, I’d love to tell you, but...I’m not really sure myself.” Hope said apologetically.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lux raised a browbone. “You don’t know?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sort of. It’s...like a weird feeling, a sort of </span>
  <em>
    <span>pull</span>
  </em>
  <span>, that I get toward certain souls.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lux looked even more confused. “This has happened with others? Besides us, I mean.” She added, pointing to her brother.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hope nodded. “Yes. I don’t really know what’s causing it. I noticed it with someone else, but I felt more. That’s why I’m here, I was following one of the…” She paused, gesticulating, trying to think of a good word to describe the feeling. “...signals. I think you two are the source.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“While peculiar, this is also advantageous, as it means no one else will be able to find us by these means, yes?” Lux asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hope nodded, but hesitantly. “I think so. If others were able I would...probably know about them. No guarantees though.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Star used the slight lull in the conversation to interrupt Hope and catch his sister’s attention. “Well? Can we trust her or not?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lux glanced from him to Hope, then nodded. “I believe so. If she had ill intent toward us, she would already have acted upon it. We’ve certainly not been on our best guard.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Star finally stopped scowling for the first time in their meeting, and Hope barely restrained herself from giving an audible “Awww!” as in an instant the little skeleton went from fierce and suspicious to hesitant and shy. She suddenly realized he had been absolutely terrified, thinking she had been an agent of Nightmare. She reached a hand up to her left eye unconsciously, feeling the edges of the crack in her skull. She jumped when she realized she was doing it, and gripped her staff to give her hands something else to do.“Well, we, uh, should probably head out. Unless you guys have something you need to do here?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Just give us a few minutes to gather our things, if you would.” Lux replied, heading back to the haystack. She waved her brother in as well. “Star, come on.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Alright, just tell me when you’re ready.” Hope said “I’ll be outside.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was starting to get into the late afternoon, the sun casting long shadows behind the trees and buildings scattered throughout the fields. Hope sat down under the nearest of the trees, a thick trunked oak. After a few minutes of waiting, she started to get fidgety, so she pulled out her phone and started messing around with some of the features she hadn’t tried yet. Crescent had downloaded several apps for her, saying they were basically essential to life as we know it. Even that got dull as the wait stretched into half an hour though, so she got up and started looking around. There were still signs of the lost community scattered about, small items left behind. Hope pocketed a pen, a comb, some marbles, several odd coins, and a couple odd scraps of cloth before she realized she had wandered quite a ways away from the barn in her little exploration. She started back, and was still a ways away when she saw the siblings emerge from the barn, now each carrying a few bags, presumably filled with their belongings.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m over here!” She called, when she noticed them looking around, likely for her. At her call they began walking over, and she sped up her pace, not wanting them to have to carry their loads too far, considering it was her they were now waiting on. “Have everything you need?” She asked once she was close enough.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lux shook her head. “I believe this is all.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Great. We can head out then. Just let me-“ Hope was cut off by an odd crackling noise, and before she could pinpoint where it was coming from, a rip in space opened up behind Lux and Star, and two monsters stepped out. The first looked like Undyne, right down to the missing eye. She was dressed in armor, the chest plate tinted green, and a skirt made of fluttering strips of grey cloth overtop of charcoal colored leggings. In her left hand she held a shield, as dark green as the chest plate, with a symbol in yellow, while the other hand clutched a spear conjured of magic, which was a far more vivid green color, the same color her remaining eye glowed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The second monster resembled another familiar face, the robot Mettaton. Like the Undyne though, his right eye glowed green, and the left was empty. A deep green cloak with a gold clasp was draped over his shoulders. He didn’t seem to have an active weapon out, but was holding a small tablet, typing rapidly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hope didn’t have time to take in any more details of their appearance before the Undyne lunged at Lux and Starcross. Star started to draw his cutlass, but Lux dragged him out of the way, ripping up a wall of bones to block the fish woman’s way while she ran in Hope’s direction, pulling him with her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She slashed through them with what seemed like no effort, and quickly resumed her attack, summoning and flinging a wave of the sharp green spears at the pair. Hope finally moved, the shock of the attack wearing off, and dashed toward them as Mettaton joined the attack as well, calmly flicking little green bombs into their paths, but his eye never leaving the screen of the tablet. As Hope ran and dodged the little projectiles, her hands were busy as well, one drawing her staff, the other reaching for her sash and withdrawing one of the remaining orbs of concentrated magic. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her lapse in concentration caused her to miss one of the bombs heading for her, and the small explosion that followed knocked her off balance. She crunched into the ground facefirst, the hard, rocky dirt doing nothing to cushion her fall. Her eyelights flickered out rapidly, the skeleton equivalent of a reflexive blink, as her face skidded into the gravel-like dirt. While she didn’t have flesh for it to scrape, the surface of her bones was fairly soft, and having rocks grind into them was not a pleasant feeling.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Something crashed down on top of her and she yelped, flipping around to attack it, despite her current lack of sight. She was narrowly able to stop herself when the voice of Lux cried “Wait!” from above her. Her vision began to fade back in, and she was glad she had stopped, seeing it was only Star, who had tripped and fallen onto her. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He scrambled off as she jumped to her feet, swinging her scythe in a wide arc to block the spears the Undyne had thrown seconds earlier. Before the fish could close the distance between them, Hope flipped around and flung an orb of magic at the ground in front of her. It disappeared with a crackling sound, and a portal unfolded in the space above where it had fallen.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Star hesitated, but his sister grabbed his arm and tugged him toward it, while Hope returned her attention to the latest wave of spears and explosives. As soon as the siblings were clear, she turned and ran, diving into the portal behind them and slamming it shut behind herself without looking back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>For the second time that day, she face planted into dirt, but this time it was the soft, moist ground of Waterfall. She let her eyelights go out and just lay there, limply, for a few minutes, only moving when something gently poked her shoulder.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hope? Are you alright?” The voice of Starcross spoke softly above her, tinged with a surprising amount of concern. Hope turned her head so she could see the two skeletons standing over her. She was pleased to see that, while disheveled, they looked almost completely unharmed. Lux had suffered a small burn and a few scratches though, so Hope made herself sit up. “C’mere.” She said, her yellow eye glowing in preparation to heal the lavender haired skeleton.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lux shook her head, waving away Hope’s outstretched hand. “I’m fine” she said.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hope gave her a look, but she just returned it. “Really. I am perfectly well.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hope gave up, her eyes returning to normal. Even the little she knew of Lux indicated she was not one to lose an argument easily.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Evidently, this is not the Doodle Sphere. Where are we?” Lux asked as she extended a hand to help Hope up. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Taking it and standing up, Hope said. “First place I thought of, besides the void. I left a...friend of mine here. This way.” She started walking in the direction of the house she had settled Crescent into.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s very empty here.” Lux remarked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ah, yeah. This world has been abandoned for a long time.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Star, walking by his sister’s side, frowned. “Why?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Um” Hope said. She didn’t particularly feel like explaining genocide route worlds to anyone, especially a kid. “They...left...for good.” She muttered lamely.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Star understood anyway. “Oh” he said.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The rest of the walk was silent. When they reached the house, Hope knocked. “Crescent, I’m back.” She called through the silvery door. There was a rattling of a lock coming undone, then dark aqua eyelights peeked out of the crack that opened in the doorway.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hope waved at them “Hey, remember me? I saved your life and stuff? I left and said I’d be back?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The eyelights gave her a withering look, then the door slid open the rest of the way, revealing the charcoal grey skeleton standing in the doorway behind it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Took you long enough.” He grumbled. Something flashed silver in his hands, and Hope realized he was playing with one of the kitchen knives she had bought, twirling it skillfully between his thin fingers.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mentally shrugging off the danger (it was him who’d be bleeding if the knife slipped) Hope turned around. “This is Crescent.” She said. “I’m pretty certain that you guys have a similar situation going on. Please be sensitive though, he’s had...a rough couple of days.” She stepped off to the side to encourage interaction, as neither the siblings nor Crescent looked eager to make the first move. “Okay, introduction time. Crescent, these are-“</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What are you doing here?” Star hissed, all his hostility rushing back at the sight of the grey skeleton in the doorway.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Me? </span>
  </em>
  <span>You’re the one who just showed up! I was here first, in literally every way!” Crescent shot back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The fact that you’re older than me has nothing to do with this! How did you get here? Hope, how did he get in?” Star’s hand went to his cutlass. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“She brought </span>
  <em>
    <span>me </span>
  </em>
  <span>here too, nitwit!” Crescent pointed at Hope, who took the opportunity provided by Starcross’ furious sputtering to step between the two skeletons, who were apparently not each other’s biggest fans.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Guys, stop! What is the matter with you?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Crescent and Starcross continued glowering at each other. “I hate him!” They both yelled at the same time, then looked even angrier they had said it in tandem. Their furious shouting match resumed moments later.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hope sighed, looking at Lux, who seemed just as excited about this as she was. It was going to be an interesting day.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. No Murder!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Getting Crescent and Starcross to stop yelling at each other was hard enough, but trying to get them to sit still and talk was even harder. Crescent refused to let Star into the house that he now considered his, while Star insisted he wouldn’t go in even if he was allowed, as it was sure to be rigged with traps.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A compromise of sorts was reached, with the two of them agreeing to meet outside the house, near the river, where none of the explosives Star was convinced were in the house could reach if they were triggered. By the time Hope and Lux had persuaded them to stand close enough to actually talk(and positioned themselves behind the two to prevent continued avoidance of each other), neither of them was in the best mood.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is everyone good now?!” Hope demanded. She was behind Crescent, because even though she wasn’t exactly his favorite person, he at least trusted her more than the two children of Dream standing across from them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m </span>
  </em>
  <span>fine.” Crescent grumbled. “He’s the one flipping his-“</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, stop.” Hope cut him off “Just stop.” Hope didn’t usually care if other people cursed, and certainly wasn’t above it herself at certain times, but at this point her nerves were so frayed even the smallest of things were driving her crazy. “Can you just...hear each other out? Please?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I refuse to listen to anything he has to say.” Star insisted, arms folded across his chest. Lux tapped him on the shoulder, and his head turned onward her, only to shrink back at the look she gave him. It basically said “I am so done right now. Get over yourself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope shot Lux a grateful look before continuing, “I’m not asking you guys to be best friends. I just don’t want a fight breaking out as soon as my back is turned, okay? Can we manage that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The silence that followed was a clear no, but she decided to treat it as a yes. “Crescent, I brought them here because we were attacked. They are just passing through, and-“</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You were attacked? Was it...my parents?” He interrupted, turning to face her instead of the siblings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, it was not. Can I please-“</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, who was it then?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As nice as it was to see that Crescent, at least, was distracted from his grudge at the moment, Hope was getting really tired of being cut off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I have never seen them before,” she said, in a deceptively calm voice, “but I promise I will tell you all about it later, if you </span>
  <em>
    <span>stop interrupting me.</span>
  </em>
  <span>” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite her poor attempt to conceal it, Crescent could clearly sense her annoyance, and he shrank in a little as he turned back around toward.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As I was saying,” Hope continued, “I offered to take Star and Lux to the Doodle Sphere.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This time, Crescent waited to make sure she was done before asking, “Why do they need to go there?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They’re looking for their parents.” Hope said, only realizing after it was out of her mouth that this might be a sensitive subject with Crescent, given his current...situation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t react much though, just muttering a quiet “Oh.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She turned her attention back to Star, who had been watching this exchange with his narrowed eyes locked onto Crescent at all times. “Star, quit it. I did bring Crescent here, and he is not a threat to you, so stop treating him as such.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His eyes jumped to hers enough to give her an incredulous look. “But his parents-“</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re the kid of Dream, but you’re not exactly being a ray of sunshine at the moment, now are you?” Crescent cut in. His expression had rapidly changed from mildly annoyed to an odd mix of sadness and anger, both, it seemed, directed at Star.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Star just scowled back. “That’s not how it works.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then stop being such a hypocrite about it! You’re blaming me for things my parents did, years before I even existed!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And have you been any better?” Star snarled</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“At least I’m the one trying to be the better person right now!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That is ENOUGH!” Lux shouted, startling everyone into silence. “I am well aware of this rivalry, and while I am inclined to take Star’s side in this, it doesn’t matter right now. We are leaving as soon as Hope is willing to take us, and I would prefer that you two refrain from even acknowledging each other from now until we depart!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope frowned slightly at the dig at Crescent, but stepped forward without comment. “We can head out now. I have more than enough magic to get you there and get myself back.” While the siblings gathered the items they had brought with them (then hastily dropped at the sight of Crescent), Hope turned back to the charcoal grey skeleton.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry I have to head out again so soon. You want me to bring anything back while I’m at the center of the multiverse?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She expected him to refuse, and was pleasantly surprised when he instead mumbled something too quiet to hear. “...s…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Could you...say that a little louder?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Knives!” He practically shouted at her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ignoring the volume, she tilted her head slightly. “Knives? Like...kitchen knives? Didn’t I buy a couple?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No...well, yes, but I...I used to collect them. I had a really, really nice collection...Mo-Killer helped me with it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope blinked a few times, taking in the ramifications of what Crescent had just said. If Killer had helped him, that meant that Killer not only was his parent, but had actually cared enough to at least take some role in his son’s life. He had even bonded with him over a shared passion; knives. So what had changed between the Killer that cared (at least a little), and the one who casually gave his apparent son a near-fatal wound? They almost seemed as if they were different skeletons entirely.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All of these thoughts zipped through Hope’s head, but none of it made any more sense than before, so she shook them away for the moment, refocusing on what was happening. What was she talking about again? Oh, right, knives.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think I could manage to grab a couple while I’m out.” She said, her cheekbones lifting in a small smile. Most of her happiness came from the fact that she had now had something she knew for sure had a high chance of making Crescent a little bit happier.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Crescent looked away, clearly embarrassed by the emotional moment he had just narrowly avoided. “...thanks. I’ll, uh, see you when you get back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He turned and headed back into the house, while she walked over to where Star and Lux were standing. “Do you have a particular part of the Doodle Sphere you’re aiming for?” She asked. When they just gave her a blank look, she offered a simpler alternative. “Do you want me to just take you to the middle? Ink would probably be willing to help you out once you’re there.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I...believe that would be best, considering our...inexperience with that place.” Lux answered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope shrugged, opened another portal and stepped aside with an, “After you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When neither of them moved, she rolled her eyes and went though herself. “I’m not dumping you in Nightmare’s castle, I swear.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They stepped through, hesitantly, into the amber-colored ambience of the Doodle Sphere. As they were in the center, some of the largest and most well known universes surrounded them; Underswap, Underfell, Outertale, Aftertale, slowly fading into those only known to a few.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, here you go.” Hope said, closing her portal. “Smack in the middle, just like you wanted. Need anything else before I go?” She had her staff raised, already preparing to travel elsewhere.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I...don’t suppose you have a method by which we could contact you if necessary? Lux asked, looking around the vast amount of worlds around them. Beside her, Starcross’s eyes were darting around, trying to watch for potential danger from all the different directions, which was of course impossible.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope bit her tongue for a moment, thinking, before mentally slapping herself when she remembered she had a cell phone. “Yeah, hang on,” She said, digging through the many pouches and pockets on her person before finally extracting the device. “Here’s my number, but Ink’s your best bet for getting around in here, if you can find him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lux nodded, pulling out her own phone and entering in the number. “Thank you. Do you happen to have some paint with you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dream has told me before that Ink can be summoned through liquid, if necessary, and the more pigment in it the better.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really?” Hope said, fascinated. “No wonder he gets around to everyone so fast. Anyway, you good now?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lux gave a short, elegant nod. “Yes, thank you. I believe we can find our own way from here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope smiled, and drew open another portal. “It was no problem. Good luck finding your parents. Maybe I’ll see you around.” She waved, then stepped through into the inky blackness of the void, leaving them alone in the amber glow.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. An Old Friend</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>She wandered through the darkness for a long while, realizing that she had missed the emptiness, in a strange way. Amidst all the new and sometimes unpleasant things she was having to deal with, the void was still the same, a deep black that it seemed would never end.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>More regretfully than ever before, she left the void in order to enter a world that was aesthetically in the medieval ages. If she recalled correctly, there was a merchant here who sold some rather lovely knives. She edged around the people in the town square to where she remembered the market was, and immediately stopped as her eyes met with an absolutely massive crowd, monsters dancing and singing and otherwise making merriment. Rather belatedly, Hope had realized it must be a festival day. While fun to most people, the last time she had tried to enter a crowd this size she had had a panic attack when someone had given her an odd look and asked her where she was from, at which point she had literally jumped into the void and stayed there for at least a week, jumping at completely imaginary sounds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Trying not to think too much about it, Hope wove her way through the monsters in the square, which was thankfully far less occupied than it had that day. She had little difficulty in locating the monster she was looking for, a tall, thin individual who bore a resemblance to a wolf. His specialty was weaponry, but the kind of weapons that were so pretty you almost felt bad using them in normal combat. Hope had never needed one of course, but had always admired his wares on the occasions she had come here, and had even plucked up the courage to speak with him at one point. He was simply pleased to meet someone with an interest in what he did, and she had ended up spending much of a day watching him work, occasionally asking questions as he carved the metal, polished wood for handles, and carefully embedded gems into the hilts of daggers. Really, he was one of the few monsters she had ever had successful and continued interaction with, and she was actually looking forward to seeing him again. The fact that Crescent wanted a knife was basically a friendly reminder to her that she should go visit him, as well as a decent excuse to admire the fancy metalwork without feeling guilty for not buying anything. It was perfect, really, and she was extra proud of herself, she had even remembered his name!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She stepped into his shop, which was lit by the usual flickering light of his forge near the back, with a few candles in the corners where the shadows grew too long. “Lance? Are you in here?” By some odd fluke the human of this world had not yet fallen, meaning that the inhabitants had never had to go through a reset, or experience any of the unfortunate side effects- like forgetting huge chunks of recent events that suddenly never even happened. This also meant Hope didn’t have to deal with the usual explanation of resets necessary for having friends in a world where time could literally be reset.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A loud crash answered her inquiries, followed by an awful scraping and some clicking noises. “Back here!” called a voice, male, and with an odd cadence to it. At the invite, Hope carefully edged between a pair of swords to reach the back room, where the forging and crafting actually happened. He must not have had the forge lit, because it was nearly pitch black, to the point that Hope’s eyelights were her only source of light, and she unconsciously brightened them, trying to illuminate the room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gods, that’s creepy.” Brilliant green eyes emerged from the dark, along with their bearer. He was a monster, mostly wolf like, but taller than any others that Hope had seen. He wasn’t much for accessorizing, or fashion in general, so his clothes were a simple tan tunic and darker shorts, with a heavy apron overtop to protect himself from the liquid metal he worked with. He did have a small blue ring in his left ear though, which was currently folded down in annoyance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Hope said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The eyes. It looks like there’s a ghost in here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh! Sorry” she said, deliberately dimming her eyelights to a more normal brightness. “But I wouldn’t have to do that if you’d have some lights on like a normal monster.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not my fault you have terrible night vision.” He grinned, showing off long white fangs. She gave him a slight scowl, but he only grinned wider. “So, my mysterious disappearing friend, what brings you here?” As he spoke, was pulling things off the window sill, which was so full of junk it wouldn’t have even made a difference if it was open. He tugged it open, the wood creaking, and a flood of light came in from the streets outside.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope squinted, saying “I’m actually going to buy something this time, if that's what you’re worried about.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, that’s a nice change. Looking for anything specific?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...knives?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not very specific, but it’s a place to start. C’mere.” He headed back into the main area of the shop, stopping at a rack loading down with a frankly staggering number of daggers, knives, and the like. “Here ya go.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...I was hoping you’d have more advice.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gimmie more info, then you can have more advice.” He said, sitting down behind the counter and picking up a carver, which he began sliding it down the length of the thin unfinished sword blade laying in front of him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Doing her best to ignore the screech of metal on metal, Hope turned her attention to the array of blades in front of her. It was rather overwhelming, really, and she stared at them for a good minute before carefully lifting one off to examine it more closely. The blade itself had inlay, stylized to look like ivy twining up it, complete with minuscule leaves. She laid it back down and moved on to the next, trying to look like she had a plan. Lance was in no way fooled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Need help?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No.” She answered rather shortly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He held his hands up placatingly “Just askin’. Who you shopping for anyway?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A friend.” She said distractedly, examining the ruby that capped the pommel of one of the blades.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, look at you, making friends. Thought you lived all by yourself in the middle of nowhere .”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She straightened up to give him a look. “I do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, tell me about ‘em!” He said, not seeming to notice the look in the slightest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s-“</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ooh, a he?” Lance grinned toothily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stop that.” She snapped “He’s like 16.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Seems a bit young to be playing with knives too, but…” he shrugged, then chuckled. “You’re never gonna pick anything, are ya?” He slid off the bench behind the counter and sauntered over to the rack. “Let me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She stepped aside, narrowly avoiding toppling the whole rack, to let him in. His eyes swiftly scanned the selection before he reached up and selected a blade made of a rather darker metal, decorated sparsely with silver, and sporting a comfortable black leather grip. “Here.” He said, handing it to her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked at it rather dubiously. It looked like something a dark lord would use to assassinate the monarch of light. Really, she thought, it was perfect. She looked up to find Lance wearing a self satisfied grin. As much as she hated to give him the satisfaction, she nodded. “I’ll take it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Great! Anything for you?” He asked, eyes already zipping over the rack.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I...don’t think so. I have this.” She pointed over her shoulder at her staff.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can’t go wrong with cold steel though.” He pointed out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know, it seems unnecessary…” She mumbled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She didn’t argue with him when he started to reach for another though, curious if he was able to find one that she would actually want and use.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t disappoint. The dagger she was handed was elegant, the blade slightly curved, but beautifully balanced. Tiny flecks of lightest silver twinkled alongside the inlay of silver moons and golden suns. The pommel was an amethyst, the color of the darkest red wine Hope had ever seen, with the leather wrapped around the handle matching the stone almost perfectly. It was a bit longer than most of the others, but that didn’t make it look odd at all. It was simply beautiful. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He laughed at the stunned expression on her face. “That expression just made all the work I put into that thing worthwhile.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After trying and failing to get her face back under control, she settled for a slightly less astonished expression and said “Ok, that’s enough. I cannot afford to leave here with a dozen of these.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“All right, all right, just a half dozen then.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her scowl only made him laugh harder as he went behind the counter to calculate the price. He handed her a slip of paper with a few figures added up, and a larger number circled at the bottom.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She frowned at it “That seems like too little. You should probably-“</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He waved a scaly claw. “Don’t worry about it, Glow.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...Glow?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ya never told me your name.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I didn’t? But why Glow?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He pointed to his eye.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ok…I guess that...makes sense. But my actual name is Hope, just to let you know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, you could use a nickname anyway.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She rolled her eyes and handed him a little mountain of G out of her belt pouch. “I would have to disagree-“</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was cut off by a ringtone. It took her a minute to realize it was her phone going off. She dug it out of her pocket and only struggled for a few seconds before successfully answering it and lifting it to her head. “Hello?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s me!” Hissed a voice on the other end.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Crescent?” It sounded like him, but it was a bit hard to tell over the phone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s up?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Someone’s here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know, maybe where I’m living at!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, okay. Who is it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know. They’re not from my Dad’s gang though. All I saw was a green cloak.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope inhaled sharply.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hope? What is it? Who are they?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you hidden?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, why-“</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because they’re probably the ones that tried to kill me in Dreamtale!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now it was Crescent’s turn to go silent. Hope didn’t wait for his reply.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hide somewhere and stay there. I’m on my way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was a tiny “Ok” before the line hung up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lance raised an eyebrow. “Leaving?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, sorry.” She grabbed the two daggers and dashed out the door. “I’ll be back later, maybe!” She sprinted the rest of the way through the market square, earning more than a few odd looks, before opening a portal to Crescent’s world and diving through, not really caring where exactly she came out.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Mistakes and Answers</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Hope instantly regretted not being more careful with where her portal came out, as on exit she was immediately and unceremoniously dumped into the river outside of Crescent’s house. She surfaced quickly, gasping despite the fact that she didn’t really need to breathe, and dragged herself out of the water, eyelights darting about in a search for the intruders to this world. Nothing. She pulled down her staff and walked cautiously towards the building in front of her, summoning her scythe with the least light and noise possible. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Before she could even reach for the door handle, it burst open, and she was met with the intimidating stare of the same Undyne as before, only...something was different. Her eye patch was still there, but there was an odd glow coming from beneath it, as though there was still an eye under there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Unsurprisingly, Hope’s musings on the subject were cut off when she had to block a spear headed straight for her ribcage. What was surprising though, was that as soon as she was knocked backward, the Undyne didn’t continue to attack. She simply slammed the door shut.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, no you don’t” Hope growled, her staff already forming its usual scythe. In a moment she had raised it and was slicing right through the door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Or at least she tried to. Rather than the effortless slash she had expected, the blade rebounded off the door with a clang, startling her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the…?” She muttered as she examined her scythe. The blade, being made of magic, was of course unharmed, and was as sharp as ever when she checked it. There was absolutely no reason for it to have failed. Rather ticked off at this point, Hope tried again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nothing. Not even a scratch. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Screw this.” She hissed, sheathing her staff. Both her eyes blazed with magic for a moment, then went jet black, as space seemed to warp around her. A screechy noise came from the house, then the door in front of her not only slid open, but collapsed in on itself, along with a large section of the wall. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her eyes were still purest black as she stepped into the house, only to find her target standing in front of her once again, vivid green spear summoned, but at her side. For the first time, she heard her speak.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This doesn’t concern you. Leave. Now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope just tipped her head, then lifted a hand in a motion not unlike a benediction. The key difference; a swirling flame of black magic that hovered threateningly in front of her raised palm. “... … .. ….?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If Hope was thinking straight she might have noticed the way her voice seemed to come out muted, as though it was being sucked out before it could become waves of sound in the air. But she wasn’t.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Undyne, rather than looking intimidated by this peculiar sight, tilted her head slightly, and frowned. She peered at Hope with a very odd expression. It was the expression of someone who has just found the perfect answer to a puzzle, only to find that the answer, rather than the question, was the real puzzle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her expression quickly changed to hurt, however, when black magic shot toward her in the form of arrows, piecing her armor in several places. She flung up her spear to block them, but the ferocity she had had in Dreamtale was gone, replaced by an odd hesitation that allowed her to sustain an arrow in the upper arm, limiting her ability to even defend herself. A black liquid oozed slowly from all her injuries.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Very late, she retaliated, flinging an arm up and summoning spears from underneath. Hope didn’t even look down when they slid into her with a nasty crunching sound, she just waited until they dissipated to continue forward, now adding black tentacle like projections of magic to her attacks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now the Undyne actually looked a bit worried, biting her lip as she slashed a tentacle to keep it from crushing her arm. She spoke without taking her attention from Hope, but was clearly addressing someone else. “You almost done back there, Tor?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m trying! His soul is very unstable! Just give me a couple more minutes, please.” The reply to her question came from behind her, which explained what she was protecting. It was a Toriel, wearing the same green cloak as the Mettaton had been, along with a dress a few shades lighter, and glasses, which she was currently squinting through as she examined a canister in front of her. Inside pulsed a small, silvery soul, and next to the canister lay Crescent, eyes empty and body limp. The canister had a panel on the side, showing some sort of readout, which the Toriel must have understood, as she tapped a few buttons after examining it for a moment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You good yet?” The Undyne called nervously. Hope was only getting closer, and her attacks weren’t weakening at all, despite the obvious injuries she was sporting. The fish monster had managed to land several more serious hits on her, but her black eyes hadn’t turned to look at herself once, always staying locked on to the Undyne at all times. Despite the obvious severity of the injuries, she didn’t seem to react to the pain of it at all either, even though an oddly glowing magic was steadily dripping from her mouth. “...... ….. .. … …., ….. …”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Toriel, please tell me you’re ready!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I got it!” The Toriel said, grabbing the canister.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Took you long enough!” Grumbled the Undyne, but she bent down to grab Crescent’s limp form without complaint.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Toriel meanwhile, was fiddling with something around her neck. A pendant of sorts, which she pressed something on, and immediately a dark portal appeared in front of her. She stepped through, and the Undyne followed her a moment later, hesitating as she looked back at Hope and her dark eyes, never leaving her face. “You can’t be her…” She whispered. And then they were gone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope lurched to a stop. “...?” Her eyes, dark as they were, seemed to grow more so as she slowly realized her enemies had escaped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nothing made sense, she realized fuzzily, somewhere in her brain. Something was...off. Why was she acting like that? Why didn’t she just follow them?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not your fault...” A voice murmured.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>On the outside, Hope remained exactly the same, standing upright and motionless, except for the drip-drip of her magic leaking out. Inside her mind though, Hope jumped and snarled “Who’s there?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Inside her mind,  everything was dark, so it was easy to see the figure standing in the distance. They were turned away from her though, with their head bowed, so it was impossible to make out their face. But there was one part of their appearance that was familiar. A deep green cloak, the hood pulled over the figure’s head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope reached for her weapon, but it wasn’t there. She couldn’t summon it either, and when she tried to use her magic in its pure form? Nothing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She turned her attention back to the figure. It hadn’t moved, was showing no signs of aggression, so she cautiously moved closer. When it continued to remain still, even when Hope was only about a foot away, she reached out to hesitantly touch its shoulder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Its head turned, and Hope froze. “Sorry!” She yelped, quickly lifting her hand and backing away. She didn’t get far though, as a hand came up and grabbed her wrist.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t run.” The voice spoke again. The figure’s other hand came up to her hood and drew it back, revealing her face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was just an Alphys. Yes, she had the green eyes and cloak of her enemies, but at least she wasn’t some sinister demon in her head. Just the quiet lizard monster she had seen in so many places before. Who for some reason was residing in her consciousness.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alphys smiled sadly at her. “I’m sure you’re confused.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope stammered incoherently for a moment before finding her voice. “Uh, yeah. We are in my head, right? What are you doing here? What are you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alphys opened her mouth, shut it again, then rubbed her eyes. “This was not how it was supposed to go…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How what was supposed to go? What are you talking about?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alphys raised her eyes again, looking at Hope. “What happened here?” She said, pointing at Hope’s face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Hope’s hand lifted to her face, only to realize a moment later that Alphys was talking about the crack. “Oh, um...I soulbonded with a world. And things...didn’t go so well.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alphys’ eyes brightened. “The soulbonding worked! Thank the creators!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her scaly hand was still wrapped around Hope’s forearm, and she used it to tug the skeleton closer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you mind?!l she protested, when the lizard monster tugged her soul out to examine. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh hush, you’re fine. I’m not going to touch it.” She looked excited as she peered at it, but her expression quickly soured when Hope grabbed her soul and shoved it back in her chest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No. I am not fine. Explain.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alphys sighed, looking away. “I do owe you that much at least. I’ll start from the beginning shall I?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you know about the void?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope gave her a look. “It’s big, black and empty. It’s also where I came from.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The most basic of definitions, but it’ll do. It’s supposed to be entirely devoid of life, except for the occasional bit of loose code from the many, many Gasters scattered about in there. But there are occasional...glitches.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope raised a browbone. “Glitches? Like what, something that’s not nothing?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure. But most of them glitch back out of existence very quickly, usually within minutes. Moreover, it’s very rare that they are alive in any sense.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What does any of this have to do with me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Be patient. Nothing will make sense if I don’t explain this first.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I get that, but I’m fairly certain something’s wrong with me. And not this me in my head, the actual me, out in the world.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alphys just nodded. “That’s why I came earlier. And don’t worry, a lot can happen in your mind in a very small amount of time, so your condition won’t have a chance to worsen before we’re done.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...ok.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good. Now, every once in a while, something alive does appear. Usually they’re little more than stray code from a soul, but with the proper circumstances they can gain a form. Void matter is very pliable, after all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So...are you just telling me where I came from?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sort of. Just wait, okay? Now, very, very rarely multiple of these creatures will appear in one place. The fact that they are together greatly increases their chances of survival, as they have a motivation to continue in their companions. I was a member of one of these groups, a group that would eventually become the Chroniclers, the monsters that have been giving you so much trouble.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope opened her mouth to ask a question, but Alphys didn’t even pause in her speaking.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We bonded together in the void, traveling aimlessly through the void, until we found a world. We didn’t know how to get in, but just watching was enough. It was the most amazing thing any of us had ever seen. We just stayed there, I don’t know for how long, fascinated beyond belief by the daily lives of this world.” Alphys closed her eyes, tears spilling out of them, but from happiness or sorrow Hope didn’t know. “Of course, nothing lasts forever, even worlds. Especially worlds. We watched it live, and we watched it die. We watched as whoever had created it grew bored and left it. We watched the inhabitants crumble and fade. And we watched it disappear back into the void, where no one would remember it. Except us. We became obsessed with remembering everything about it. Void creatures are so very changeable though. We knew we would forget if we didn’t change into something more suitable for the purpose. So we did. We chose forms based on those we had seen in that world, and looked for a place to tie ourselves to. One of us, the one who had taken the form of the king, Asgore, offered to let us soulbond to him. He would become the tether binding us all to reality. We all readily agreed, of course.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Weren’t you worried he would take advantage of that later?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We knew nothing. We didn’t have reason to be suspicious, and he didn’t have the knowledge to have ulterior motives at that point anyway. There was nothing to worry about. We even managed to drag a world out of the void, and that was where we made our home, slowly figuring out our abilities and selves. Naturally, Asgore was the ruler. He was the one who came up with a purpose for us. ‘We’ll remember everything’ he said. And he meant it. We eventually learned how to get out of the void, and what we found was an infinite multiverse, bursting with life and worlds for us to watch. So we converted our home into a museum of sorts, and filled it with the history of every world we could get to. Somewhere along the line we decided we needed a title, The Chroniclers. It sounded so dignified and prestigious.” She said bitterly. “The amazing creatures of the void who remember everything and never get involved! We were so very proud of ourselves. We all had our happy lives, I had a lab filled with the most sophisticated equipment in the multiverse. It was perfect. Then someone, most likely Sans, had the revolutionary idea that if there were multiple universes, why couldn’t there be multiple multiverses?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So...are there?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alphys nodded, but rather than seeming eager to share her knowledge, she hesitated for the first time in her speech. “Y-yes. And we even managed to see them through a machine I designed to do just that. But my work had...consequences. Multiverses aren’t meant to overlap like that, and things started to go noticeably wrong very quickly. Things from timelines that never happened started to appear. Sometimes there were even duplicates of people, or people that should never have existed in the first place.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hold on.” Hope interrupted. “Like, children from relationships that never happened in the first place?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Exactly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So all of this is your fault? Why didn’t you do something about it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alphys scowled at her. “Do you think we weren’t trying? As soon as we realized what was going on we shut down my device. The damage was already done though. So Asgore came up with a solution. We would eliminate any anomalies and return our multiverse to it’s base solution.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You were going to kill them!” Hope cried.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alphys nodded sadly. “When we realized what he wanted us to do, we refused. But he turned our soul bond against us, forcing us to do as he wished. He made Undyne, Toriel, and Mettaton go out to hunt them down, while the rest of us stayed to search for others from the safety of our home, Chronicler’s Hall.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s horrible.” Hope said bluntly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alphys just nodded. “I know. That’s why I was working on something. Luckily he couldn’t keep control of me while I was working, as I needed to be in control of my own mind to work properly on the devices I was building. I did the work he needed me to do, but whenever I was left alone I worked on my project. I was creating something to stop Asgore.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And? What was it? A weapon?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, that was part of it. I was creating the blueprints for a monster, actually. One with the strength of the void, and gifted with fantastic magical abilities. I knew how to make that much easily, but I was missing the one key component. A soul. Any monster needs a soul, or will be doomed from the start. Just look at Ink. The poor creature will suffer until his dying day, all because he lost a little silver heart.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He seems pretty happy to me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That’s what he wants you to think.” Alphys said dismissively. “Back to what I was saying though. I got very attached to my creation. I even named it, back when it was just an empty vessel in my lab. I called it Hope, because it was going to be the hope of all the monsters in the hall, and all the monsters who had come from the other multiverse. But it still didn’t have a soul. I had a plan, but I wasn’t ready to go through with it. So I stalled. I made everything this vessel could possibly need, a perfect weapon, an absolutely lovely cloak-“</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you saying you made me?” Hope demanded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh no, I made your physical self. I </span>
  <em>
    <span>am </span>
  </em>
  <span>you. Or at least I was.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If they had been in the real world, Hope probably would have fainted. As it was, there was no place else in her mind for her to escape, so she was forced to settle for a mild panic attack. “Explain. Now.” She snarled at the lizard.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alphys nodded, looking unsurprised at her reaction. “I returned to the void and gave my soul to the vessel I had created. It was a blank slate, not trapped under Asgore’s rule. That vessel became you. I’m gone now, of course, but I stored some of my…’self’ if you will, inside the locket on your cloak. That way I could explain to you what I had done. Which I now have.” Alphys stood still and silent now, apparently having finished for the moment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now what do I do?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alphys sighed. “You have options. You can fulfill the purpose I gave you, or you can live your life as you were before. But right now, you’d best return to the world. You are only a few minutes from death, after all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope barely managed to yell “What?” before she was plunged back into cruel reality, a reality of blood and pain, confusion and regrets.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Making Choices</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Just a warning, there are some relatively descriptive injuries in this chapter. Nothing over the top gorey, but just a warning in case it might be a problem for anyone.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Returning to reality from...wherever Hope had been was not in any way a pleasant experience. What began as a mildly uncomfortable yank, not unlike the feeling of having one’s soul taken out, or CHECKed, rapidly became a chorus of pain as every part of her bruised and battered body clamored for her consciousness’ attention. She made an effort not to cry out in pain, but an agonized whimper worked its way past her clenched teeth anyway. She tried to look down to examine her chest injuries, but that simple head movement was enough to bring on a dreadful coughing fit, and she slid to the ground, legs too mangled to support her any longer. Every cough sent a jolt of pain through her cracked spine, and when she took her hand away from her mouth, it was splattered with a thick magenta and black liquid that would have been lovely to look at had it not been the closest thing she had to blood.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was almost glad for the coughing fit though, as it momentarily distracted her from the unpleasant thoughts of what she was going to have to do to heal herself. She couldn’t wait forever though. While she had plenty of health restoring food, she knew she couldn’t just eat it and expect it to do everything. No, she was going to have to snap every bone she had back into its proper place, seal any gaps with magic, and try not to make any of the existing injuries worse, all without passing out from pain. It was basically the equivalent of  performing a surgery, on yourself, with no anesthetics, and no support staff.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She just thanked whatever gods there were that she had at least one arm still working. Might as well be thankful for the little things, right? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She started with her other arm, as she was certain she was going to need it to work on some of the more delicate bones. It wasn’t actually too bad at first. The radius had a small crack that was easy to fix, the shoulder blade slid neatly back into place, and she actually almost smiled a bit, confidence restored. Of course, it shattered again as soon as she healed up the vertebrae in her neck and was able to look down at herself. Her rib cage alone was practically shattered, little chunks actually broken off in some places, and some bones hanging by a mere thread of marrow. Hope was very nearly violently sick when she shifted and the hanging pieces began swinging like some sick windchime. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Those are now top priority…” she mumbled to herself, lifting her shaky hands to click the broken pieces back together. As usual, talking to herself was both a help and a hurt. It gave her a distraction, felt a bit like a companion, and allowed her to ponder out loud, often gleaning some interesting new perspectives.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>On the flip side, it reminded her just how alone she actually was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Putting herself back together took hours, and the complications just kept stacking up. How do you repair a skull fracture when you can’t see what you’re doing? How on earth are you supposed to put together a kneecap cracked into at least ten pieces? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Needless to say, the entire process was a miserable experience, by the end of which she didn’t even notice the hurt so much as the sheer tiredness that came of your magic reserves freely leaking out of you for hours. Her (mostly unnecessary) breathing was ragged, when she spoke it came out slightly slurred, and when she tried to stand up her limbs shook so badly that she collapsed immediately. She didn’t have the energy for a second attempt, didn’t even have the energy for thinking straight. She just lay on the floor, staring blankly at the ceiling, sockets growing darker and darker as her soul slowly dragged her into a much needed rest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She dreamed while she slept, which was rather unusual. If she were thinking about it, she might have thought to ask why, but the pictures were sweeping by far too quickly to even try.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She dreamed about the Chroniclers, her brain conjuring up how their home must look, an enormous building loaded to the brim with artifacts from every AU that had ever been.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She dreamed she watched as Alphys created the thing that she would become, foregoing sleep and company to hide in the dark room where she hid her most secret projects.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She dreamed of the king of the hall, Asgore. In her dream, he sat on a dark throne, his head bowed. She was standing in front of the throne, looking up at him. She turned to leave the room, but before she could, he looked up at her, eyes as dark as the void, and she froze. Everything about him screamed at her to run, but as many know, dreams rarely permit you to do the smart thing. So she stood, stock still, as he descended the steps and walked ever so calmly toward her, hand out to the side, where a vivid green trident materialized. He raised it- and Hope started awake, back on the floor of Crescent’s house, where she had failed to do anything to protect the one person who had trusted her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She would have cried, but there was so little magic in her, her body wasn’t willing to use it on tears. Unable to vent her misery though crying, she was forced to the next best option: action. She discovered she could, with difficulty, stand, and she not-so-gingerly got to her feet, doing her best to ignore the crackling sounds vibrating through her bones.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She stood there for a good while longer, brain still trying to wrap her mind around what she had learned before suddenly moving, whipping her staff out and ripping open a hole into the void. The black was dark as ever, perhaps even more so now that she knew she had been created from it, and could just as easily disappear back into it with no one the wiser. Time might not work here, but there was some sense of direction, and Hope had a destination. She was searching for the place she had first appeared, first been alive. The journey took no time in reality, but it gave her a chance to finally settle everything into her mind in a way that made sense and lined up with how she had been living. Her like for learning, remembering, relics, all tied into her origins. She was able to sense where those from other universes were- wait. She could find them. Letting her soul reach wherever it pleased, the tugging from hundreds of souls immediately returned. That was comforting, but what was not comforting was the fact that so many were all yanking in one direction, inside the void. The Chroniclers had so, so many souls, all dormant by the weak pulse, but still subconsciously projecting cries for help. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was time to return to the hall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This trek through the darkness took longer than the other had, the tuggings on Hope’s soul inconsistent and confusing. She wandered in the blackness for a long time before realizing she had circled the same location several times. There were no landmarks to speak of, but she still </span>
  <em>
    <span>knew.</span>
  </em>
  <span> So the next time she reached that spot, she didn’t continue on, she stopped, feeling how the tugging had stilled, telling her she was in the right spot. The entrance to Chroniclers hall had to be nearby, and she must know how to get in. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But she hesitated, remembering what Alphys had said. She did have a choice. She wasn’t bound by any obligation to do this. She could turn around, leave, forget all about it, and wander, alone, like she had before. She couldn’t do that now though. She couldn't go back to that cold sense of purposelessness. It would be so much better to try knowing she had mattered than to continue on the way she had before.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The moment she made her choice, deep in her mind, she was dragged out of the void. Out of black and into green.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Out of the void, and into The Hall.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. The Hall</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>First off, apologies this chapter is a few days late. Not as bad as my several month disappearance, but still. I’d just like to give a heads up that this might be the last chapter for a while, or at least updates might become more sporadic as I’ve run through my rewritten chapters for the fic and I don’t have a great deal of time and motivation to write at the moment. I’m not abandoning it though don’t worry, and I hope you’ll still enjoy what I post.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The sudden flipping of location was disorienting, but somehow familiar. The source of the deja vu was obvious when Hope opened her eyes, somehow unsurprised to see the hall from her dreams all around her. The ceiling was tall, taller than should have been illuminated by the dusty lamps on the wall, and balconies ran back and forth all the way up, with stairs weaving between the levels at seemingly random intervals. The predominant color in the decoration was a rich emerald green, and it was everywhere, from the tapestries hanging from the pillars to the thick rugs that stretched as far as the halls. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was quite a lot to take in at once and she stood still for longer than she would care to admit, mouth open and blinking at the sheer size of the place.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was only jolted out of her reverie when she heard the sound of footfalls nearby, and before she had fully registered those, the sound of a door creaking open.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That was when she noticed the doors. Hundreds of them, blending quite well into the dark wood of the walls, but now that she was looking were everywhere. There was no time to admire them further though, as one of the doors to her left was beginning to swing outwards, and a muttering voice was coming close behind it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope, ever quick on the reaction, shuffled back and forth for a few seconds before finally committing to a direction, diving behind the massive pillar to her left just moments before a shuffling noise announced the other individual had reached the carpet in the main hall. The door swung shut again with a slight creak, and the shuffling moved away, along with a ruffling sound that seemed to be paper being moved about.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope let out a completely unnecessary breath. It helped calm her a bit, as whatever was the equivalent of a heart to her was still thumping wildly through her bones. Magic pulse, perhaps. It was unusual for her to feel it so strongly. But it was largely irrelevant in comparison to the realization of where she was at, as it struck her again. Even after all the deliberation, and very dramatic decision making, she wasn’t really sure what to do to help the souls. That was a decision she was going to have to make sooner rather than later.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the very short term though, it was important she not stay in one place, as she could hear the distant shuffling of feet in most directions. But they were far enough away that she decided it would be worth the risk to satisfy her curiosity about what was behind the doors. If she was lucky, it would help her to understand this place a little better.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With that in mind, she slowly stepped backward until she bumped into the wall, then slid her hand along until it hit a door handle. She winced at the clink her bones made, but stayed the course, wrapping them all the way around the cold metal and pulling as she slid inside, pulling the door to rest as gently as she could. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When she turned around, she gasped. The room wasn’t huge, certainly not as grand as the hall it connected to, but it was infinitely more interesting to look at. The walls were entirely made of shelves of varying sizes, many of which were packed with thick books and bundles of paper. But there were quite a few other, seemingly much more random items tucked there as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The first of them to really catch her eye was a lower shelf that seemed to double as a clothing rack. Several sets of armor hung there, alongside more casual items such as t-shirts. They all seemed to share a theme of brighter colors. It didn’t really click what she was looking at until she pushed aside a large cloak to reveal a bright orange hoodie.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This was Underswap. Well, not the au itself, but all that you could ever need to know about it. Now that she had noticed, it was painfully obvious. The armor and little blue scarf that were on the rack clearly belonged to Swap Sans, and the orange hoodie to his brother. There was an axe hanging on the wall that must have belonged to that world’s Alphys, an empty eyed robot with greyish hair swept over one eye that must be the body of Napstablook, and a long white lab coat much too tall to belong to any Alphys, clearly Undyne’s. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of course, her revelation was undermined a bit when she turned back to the middle of the room and properly noticed the book on the table, very clearly labeled “Underswap 326” in an elegant metallic gold script on the cover. Opening the book did at least assure her she was right, and it was even more detailed than she had expected. Every monster in the underground was there, along with as much information as one could possibly need on them. Height, weight, family, favorite food, usual locations in the underground, and all the outfits they had ever worn carefully drawn in and colored. All the locations were mapped out as well, along with routes monsters were mostly likely to be on and when. Most fascinating of all, there were several pages dedicated to the human of that au and the actions they had taken. There was a tally of the resets that had occurred, and a record of how each run had ended, or if they had completed a route at all. It looked like this particular human was inclined toward pacifist routes, there were a few neutral and one incomplete genocide, but they had mostly stayed the course and remained peaceful. In fact, the last reset had been quite some time ago, and the monsters were currently living on the surface in relative peace. A few diplomatic tensions with humans, but as a whole it was a happy ending. There were even more pages on the surface world, the writing dense and packed into the pages as closely as possible, but still legible.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope was desperately tempted to bring the book with her, but not only was it enormous, if anyone noticed it missing it would immediately raise the suspicion that someone was in the hall who shouldn’t be.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So she reluctantly closed it, and walked carefully to the door, making one final sweep of the room to make sure she hadn’t moved anything noticeably out of place. (She was glad she did, as she had apparently knocked the shoulder of the hoodie off its hanger).</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The hall was still quiet when she stepped back out of the room. In some ways she had hoped someone would show up, just to break the silence that was beginning to grow stifling. It wasn’t like the void, where silence was expected. Here it felt wrong, as though there had been a lot more sound in these halls once, and the silence had come in later, and slowly consumed the happy chatter. She tried not to let it unsettle her as she refocused on the reason she was here. The pull on her soul was still weak, but getting stronger. She suspected it had to do with how close she was and how many souls were trapped here somewhere. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The halls stayed empty for quite some time as she followed the tug, and Hope’s thoughts started to wander a bit. She wondered if she had ever remembered being Alphys. Maybe a little at the very beginning? The closest thing that had ever come to her were her dreams. They had to have a little memory in there somewhere. After all, how else would she have known how Asgore looked?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That was about as far as her thoughts were able to go before she was startled back into the present by the fact that she had nearly walked into a door. She jumped back, disoriented.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where…?” She mumbled, entirely to herself. Apparently she had gotten further than she had thought.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The door she had nearly collided with was a lot taller than the others, still made of the same dark wood, but with more decoration and a bit of inlay, making it stand out, rather than blend into the wall like the others. There was a rather ominous humming noise coming from behind it, quiet enough that she was still unsure whether she was imagining it. The tugging in her chest was more insistent now, almost painful, but she hesitated, stepping back to look at the door. It occurred to her that just rushing in might not be wise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of course, her hesitation lasted approximately ten seconds, the longest her self preservation could possibly stand, before she marched forward and grabbed the handle. It wasn’t locked, but it was dark.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dark, except of course for the glowing of souls.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh, and that deep green pair of eyes that were locked onto her.</span>
</p>
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